I remember Hudson running a competition in CVG to rename the Amiga version, As they realised calling the character "Bonk" was a euphamism for sex in the UK :D
@@RetroCore People being offended for others is what made political correction a laughing stock. Ironic as it's somethign they'd call "cultural appropriation" if someone else was doing it.
It's so sad that most of the games I actually paid for were shoddy ports while the only easy way to access quality efforts like this was to copy that floppy. 😕
Bonk is so nostalgic, I perfectly remember VG&CE magazine mentioning him as Hudson's mascot (which I'm not sure is true since the only certainty I have is that he was PC Engine magazine's mascot). Thanks for the PT-BR subtitle, there are some errors but overall it was great, I admire the effort.
Glad people are using the other language subtitles. They're done using Google Translate so I guess they won't be perfect but good for those who don't understand English.
I was absolutely worried when I saw there was an Amiga version. However, after I saw the Factor 5 logo, my fears were washed away. If only there were more developers who knew how to work with the Amiga. And there is another version of Bonk's Adventure. In the US, Bonk was a pack in CD game with the TurboDuo. Said CD also included Gate of Thunder, Bonk's Revenge, and Bomberman if you knew a code. Any differences compared to the original? Nah, it plays exactly the same. Same gameplay, same graphics, same good music. I only know of this version because I have it in my collection. :P
I like how the Amiga port is a very good representation of the original yet it's distinctively Amiga, with its colour gradients and whatnot. They used the copper chip to provide additional colours that an ordinary 16 or 32 colours mode wouldn't have granted and at the same time avoided taxing the hardware with other effects like parallax scrolling (absolutely doable on an Amiga 500, but often at the expense of smoothness, audio or gameplay logic). That's what a good developer does, using cleverly a machine resources. To be honest I had no idea about the other ports..I must say the PS2 might be the inferior one, but your capture looks exceptionally crisp and colourful for the machine.
@@RetroCore Factor 5 were a superb developer back then, shame they ended up being behind such dross as Lair Playstation 3 and Staw Wars:Rogue Squadron III on GameCube, where the controls literally killed both titles 😭
@@RetroCore Not when you consider how much i got and the fact i guess i could emulate if i wanted to. I got the games in the 90's and the prices i got are insane compared to what i paid. I game on PC mainly these days and having a high end PC costs good money. Before emulation i would have kept it probably but i bought a Retro Freak that emulates very well 8 & 16 bit stuff. My Neo Geo games i bought on the Switch which are superb versions. CD drives die at the drop of a hat so i don't regret it at all. I prefer quick and dirty 10 minute sessions of nostalgia rather than play old games properly with no save states these days. The guy i sold it all too was not even around in the 80's and 90's so at least it went to a good home.
I don't care what anyone says, but years ago in the 90's after having played the NES Bonk's Adventure via emulation on PC with a turbo controller, it's been one of my favorite NES side scrollers ever since, and the music is fantastic for the system to boot. It's just one of those games for me I play through every so often when I'm really really down, and it never fails to put a smile on my face.
It's funny to think that Bonk actually predated the 90's mascot platformer Sonic Wannabe craze. He feels like he could have totally been a contender, but felt more genuine with it's gimmicks and character's attitude than all the forgotten others. It's a shame he's all but forgotten.
Bonk was heavily used in promotions at the time as the unofficial mascot. I remember that Toys-R-Us would give you a Bonk sticker packet at Christmas when you bought TG-16 games
@@RetroFett They really tried to make him some sort of console mascot, but the console never really took off in the US. Who knows what could have been if the TG-16 was a stronger contender against Nintendo and SEGA at the time. At least he got to see his games on some Nintendo systems, even though we never got that second SNES game.
BC Kid on Amiga was a very good surprise. For the little history, when UBI Soft bough the rights for PC Kid, they annouced the arrival of the game with an add in magazines in which the French publisher asked to player to search for an new name for the conversion (the already had to rename Bomberman as Dynablaster, maybe for right specific aspects). Then, no news of the game during some months. You can imagine the surprise when we saw a conversion made by Factor 5 arriving on our screens. The guys behind the Turrican series! Of course, nothing to see with all these crappy conversions made in a hurry by inexperienced programmers. 50fps, a game screen smaller in height but much wider (256x224 on PC-Engine, 308x205 on Amiga), forced 60hz display on real Amiga, colorful GFX (in my opinion, more than on PC-Engine in outside levels thanks to copperlists and the 4096 color palette), nice musics from Chris Huelsbeck (including a main theme in 7 voices instead of 4) with of course sound effects. But most of all, all the content is here including the bonus stages! No levels missing or truncated to speed up development. I bought it immediatly and had no regret, playing it until I finished it, finding all secret bonuses and lives hidden in the levels, because yes, even the secrets are present. So respectful conversions were quite rare on Amiga ! ❤️ I didn't know about the PS2/NGC conversion. Very interesting. Graphics are not as beautiful as the ones of Yoshi's Island or some of the Kirby games using this kind of pencil graphics, but it's nice too. I will try it on my NGC using an iso 😜. Many thanks for the discover. It makes me think that a Battle Of The Ports about the original Bomberman could be very nice as there were a numerous ports of this one if I remember well 😍. Woops, no more coffee... have a nice week-end 😎
Nice write up about the contest to rename PC Kid. In the UK we also called PC Genjin, PC Kid. The name Bonk just didn't exist until the US game was released. BC Kid is an obvious yet perfect name. I'd say this is the best Amiga port of any Japanese game ever.
@@RetroCore Yes, and the most impressive. There are some other nice conversions but usually not technically difficult ones. PC Kid is a very ambitious game and shows that something is possible in the hands of the good people. It's a clever conversion, Factor 5 shows here how they clearly known what to do, avoiding the Amiga flaws and taking part of its specific capabilities to compensate. A lesson for a lot of Amiga developers back in the days IMO. Even nowadays, it's always a pleasure to play it on my CDTV.
@@TurboXray OMG WE HAVE A PCE FANBOY HERE ! Sorry for breaking your little PCE fanboy heart, really. The original version of PC Kid on PCE is obviously fabulous, there is nothing wrong with that. But I do not really see the point in searching to downgrade the Amiga version (it must be said that your nickname reveals your fanboy character a bit, you know) . The more you count how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, the more it's funny. Very nice your PAR story with lots of super cool numbers, the fact is that a pixel is a pixel, that's it. And I'm sure we are all ok to say that 256x224 is less than 308x209 (with more things shown simultaneously on screen). And as I said on another comment, I played BC Kid game on a real CRT monitor on which I can modify display size so yes, I played BC Kid in full screen (with the good PAR, sir 🤣). You don't like the music? Of course because it's not always the same and it's unbelievable to consider to deal with another one, I suppose (and here it's played too slowly, the emulator setup isn't good). Personally, I think the PCE music is too aggressive an soundchip sounding compared to the sweet work of Chris Huelsbeck on Amiga, but hey I had not made the remark so far because after all, there is no accounting for taste. About the colors, of course that the use of the capacities of the Amiga compensates here its flaws, thanks to the talent of Factor 5. In outside levels, skies on PCE are so empty. On Amiga, colors are well choosen and give a really nice atmosphere. Amiga version doesn't have the moon moving in the sky but clouds move. And have you seen that lava is animated, not just using a color cycle?). And yes there are less colors in the tilesets but Sven Meier made very interesting choices to soften this aspect, particularly taking part of the 4096 color palette of the Amiga that offers more nuances than the 512 colors of the PCE. Just say that you don't like it, that's it. And then what is this remark about the choice of the game to convert in the series? it's reminding me of the schoolyard discussions when we were 12 years old. BC Kid on Amiga is perfect in its own, just like PC Kid on PCE is perfect for the system it has been designed for. A nice game enjoyable on numerous systems is better than only on one 😉 Bye bye
@@iXien I'm a fanboy because I actually code for these old consoles and just corrected you with actual facts? Then you're an idiot. This isn't about which is better, it's about getting your shit right if you're gonna post with some kind of authority. You posted some shit you didn't fully understand, and I corrected you. Simple as that. Right back at yah, bye Felicia
you know it just astonishes me how fast video games were improving in that time from little bleeps in 1980, to super mario bros in 85 and mega man in 87 to bonk here on the pc engine.
Indeed. Then we could really see the leap in graphics. Now we need to see something in motion or look at the smaller details to tell a generation from another.
This is one of the rare occasions in which an Amiga port actually is quite good. The Amiga was really a powerful machine, but sadly as a game machine its reputation was tainted by awful develop and publisher companies. Yes, I am talking to you, U.S. Gold and Tiertex, among other shitty companies.
I bought (legitimately) Bonk's Adventure on Wii U back when Konami re-released it for Western territories in July 2016. Yes, it took 2 years and a half to people in Americas and Europe to get TG-16 games on Wii U Virtual Console.
I still got the entire trilogy on the Wii, back when the VC was still a thing for it. Also got the NES port for $20 locally, the game went even back then for way more online (close to $200 a decade or so ago, now it's $300+). The SNES got a good pair of Bonk games, so did the Game Boy.
Man, the Amiga port surprised me for being good (and then my surprise was taken away because of Factor 5 XD), but what really surprised me was the PS2/GC remakes. I knew Hudson made some of those back in the PS2 days, before the Konami buyout, but only had played the Adventure Island one.
Just started the video and I already know the Amiga port is great, because that's how I got to know the game and it is one of the finest games of the genre on the system. I also have a PC-Engine and I honestly think the Amiga version is better in many points. But it was handled by Factor 5 and those guys knew what the heck they were doing while coding on Amiga and they ALSO KNEW how to make a good game properly. It was a very uncommon combination on Amiga development teams, people who could both make good use of the hardware and also make a good game.
Factor 5's port is also a class example for all those Amiga fan boys who blaim not having source code for the awful ports that plaque the system. It's very sad that Factor 5 is no more 😢
@@RetroCore @Retro Core You're right, even it will be more difficult, not having the source code is not a fatality if you hire a talented and professional team rather than a high school student to make the job 😂 . Ironically, it is by developing a game about dragons that Factor 5 will burn its wings. Announced in the line up of the PS3 as a revolution, taking advantage of the motion recognition included in the new Sony controller, expected as the killer app of the launch of the machine, LAIR turns out to be a catastrophic, ugly and uncontrollable shooter (trust me, I was already working in the distribution market and it was terrible for me to advice customers not to buy a Factor 5 game). Factor 5 never recovered from this fail.
@@RetroCore But... Hudson Soft is actually one of the publishers of this game on Amigawith also Ubisoft... they published 3 games for Amiga together... 2 of them were PC-Engine ports (Dynablaster and this) and the other one was an Amiga exclusive (Yo!Joe!) So I am willing to bet they did have the source code available and proper support. Having proper support (which includes access to source code and assets) and a decent deadline does make a huge difference. Mega-Drive version of SF2CE took about 9 months to be made by a team of around 16-18 people from the studio who made the original game, so they obviously had access to everything regarding the arcade game. Amiga version of SF2 was done by a 5 people team during 6 months, during the first weeks of development they didn't even have a cabinet of SF2 to play the game and were doing stuff looking at a VHS of the game and going to a local arcade to play the game. And they were porting the game to two systems at the same time (Amiga and Atari ST). If Capcom needed a bigger team and more time to make a proper version of the game, how can someone expect a smaller team with less time and no proper support to succeed? I mean, shit, Richard Aplin had 6 months to port Final Fight for both Amiga and ST... *ALL ALONE* and just the PCB of the game to support him. He was a very acomplished coder, but he couldn't work miracles. - With that said, there were people who did wonders even without proper support.... Ronald Pieket Weeserik always comes to mind when I think about that, but he did have at least proper time to develop his games, unlike the guys working for USGold. And also, yeah, he was already very experienced when he begun coding for the Amiga, had done a lot of MSX games previously.
@@RetroCore But then, not to minimize Factor 5 talent. They really did wonderful stuff on every machine they worked on, and they did amazing things with the Amiga. I am still gobsmacked to this day they actually managed to port Mega Turrican to the Amiga as Turrican 3 (Also the work of a solo coder), and make it work with just 512kb of ram. I am not an excellent coder but I've coded on Amiga, and making anything that requires a fair amount of assets work with just 512kb of ram is pretty hard, because you need ram for frigging everything on Amiga. Turrican 3 is a BEAST of a game, and it was really magic to make it work with the most vanilla amiga setup possible... even though that game shows how much the Amiga couldn't cope with the Mega-Drive when both were coded properly (and Mega Turrican is a small wonder on the Mega-Drive).
@@rafaellima83 im can only agree it for both those games here. Often the games got rushed out as seen example wiht lion king, which the coder could not understand C code, but has to rewrite the game in assembler in quite short time. That was the reasons some levels was newer implemented. Its was due deadline, not because the size.
It's ironic and funny how what kids call today, "Demake," with homebrew efforts was essentially commonly referred to as ports back then. Every developer, or at least the ones worth their salt that cared about marketing and reach, did their own demakes with different teams so their game experience on advanced hardware was cascaded down to most weaker hardware and platforms on their own. As much as people joke about Atari and Sega stretching themselves thin financially during their run...they laid the template that pretty much everybody else has been following including Nintendo now. There was a PC Genjin for Gameboy but that was more akin to Bonk's Revenge. I need to try the Amiga port soon because it reminds me of the SNES Bonk versions 😇😀
Love Bonk on TG16! The FC/NES port is pretty fun, too, though like you said, the level designs are a lot different (and way easier). Can't say I'm a fan of the PS2/Gamecube version. Looks more like Yoshi's Story on the N64 than Bonk, imo. There was a Game Boy port, too, wasn't there?
TurboGrafx 16 is a great starting point. Amiga works well. NES is a streamlined offering. PS2 is breathtaking. GameCube is a vast improvement from PS2.
"I guess Hudson thought gamers of the Playstation 2 age didn't have the gaming skills of PC Engine players" Me, having played through the remake's hard mode: orly?
@@RetroCore I remember playing the PCE-CD version of garou densetsu special a long time ago, and even tho I'm crap at fighting games, I could still tell that it was even more difficult than the arcade version
The Famicon/NES version looks like a superb port. The slowdowns appear to be the case of the developers running out of time, by mid 1993 the platform already succumbed to the Megadrive/SNES. So it probably was a case of launch it now in the middle of the year, before the kids got a better machine in the Christmas.
Pleasantly surprised by the Amiga port. One of my favorite platforming games on the PC Engine. It's a shame the series probably died with Konami's acquisition of Hudson soft.
Would you believe it if I said that just yesterday I was playing this and thought to myself "this is a game I don't remember seeing on Battle of the Ports! ". Awesome! You became part of the zeitgeist, I guess 😎
There is a Gameboy version too, under the name "Bonk's Adventure". I mainly know this game thanks to its Amiga conversion. I played it a lot and still play it regularly on my arcade machine under AmigaOS !
@@RetroCore But what better RPG than the first Ys for this endevour, an RPG that only takes 5 or 6 hours to finish. And I guess there's no other RPG with that many ports and conversions.
I've only recently been getting in to PC Engine myself. I've had one for so many years but didn't really care for it. Now though I am discovering so many great games.
I grew up playing Bonk on pc engine and to this day I still consider it kind of a classic. I had no idea they revamped it for game cube and ps2! Thank you for sharing this! Looks like I have some hunting to do 😁
Zool was marketed as Amiga's answer to console quality platformers but this looks like it should have that reputation! looks like it was released around the same time so might have been overlooked, shame!
Just imagine what a pile of dung it would if been if us gold and teirtex had of converted. Great to see the hardware being used well and the 2 button control implemented. No excuse why every game didn't have the option..not like it cost anything to program in and give people the choice of 2 button or up if u only had 1 button . All games play So much better with seperate jump button. Well done factor 5 for taking the time and effort to give us amiga owners a version to he proud of
What is so wrong is crap like Tiertex are still around while the talented Factor 5 are not. I also absolutely agree about the second button option. Not using that as standard just shows how lazy and poor most Amiga devs were.
@@RetroCore you can't release shite like Lair and expect to stay in business. Probe Software and Imagitec Design, another couple of conversion goto companies from the ST and Amiga era , bit the bullet as well, so how the hell Tiertex survive, just boggles the mind.
I remember the full page ad for this in a Punisher comic book of all places back in the day. TTI, NEC's American branch just never knew how to market thing properly over here. I mean you have seen the infamous Johnny Turbo comics, right?
at start of the video im already askin myself: how will retro core bury the amiga this time? after the amiga section: i knew he couldnt, not this time:) btw b.c. kid on the amiga is full screen, but you played it in pal mode. it is a 320*200/60hz game by design (even if its technically been made in europe, but by the worlds probably only non japanese japanese developers:). so you should play it in ntsc mode, and have the smooth, fullscreen experience, as it was intended). all american made games and a lot of european ports of american/japanese games were like that, incl. even some original european games (or, in some cases a separate ntsc version were made). 3rd party hw ntsc/pal switcher modifications were almost as common as the 512kb ram upgrade amongst a500/500+ users (later amigas w ecs/ks2.0 and up are all have this feature built in). if you were an amiga gamer it didnt matter that much if you lived in a pal or ntsc country, you got both (pal screens for work, ntsc for the games:)
Well good thing factor 5 developed games on the Amiga. Too many mediocre ports for the system. Im impressed by the remake on Ps2 and Gamecube. It looks kinda like modern remakes of old platformers. Very nice looking graphics.
I had no idea that this was ported to the Amiga, I wish Factor 5 had handled more Amiga conversions, I wonder why none of the other home computers got a port.
The standard ST hardware would of really struggled with something like this, look at how gimped ST versions of Amiga titles like Wolfchild etc are and I say that as an ex 520STFM owner at the time. There wasn't the installed user base to warrant doing an STE Specific version, ST sales on the decline as it was.
Factor 5 clearly did not know how to make Amiga ports! I mean what were they thinking when allowing 2 button controls, differentiating the games from their ST counterparts and placing hardwork and dedication to their products? Worst of all, they thought players would like to listen to both sound fx and music at the same time!
This was the first PC Engine game I ever played, but it was many years after it was current. Since I was checking out the platform long after it was on the market, the first Bonk seemed like a great place to start. It was way more fun than I was expecting. Plus the game has a lot of character. I can definitely see why they made Bonk the system mascot. The second game is even better, but I like this one a lot too. Nice to see the Amiga version turn out so well. Seeing Factor 5 involved, it's not so surprising, even if it's uncommon on the Amiga. As for the remakes, the style doesn't quite appeal to me, though I can appreciate some of the creativity there, especially for the backgrounds. I do find the scrolling to be a bit unpleasant, especially the vertical scroll when the character jumps. It seems to scroll more and faster than the original. That snapping up and down messes with my head, like a motion sickness or something. Anyway, good to see this one on the channel.
I think the second game is easily the best of the 3. It's as if they found what made the original a little clunky, fixed that and threw in a load of new ideas. The third game just seems like an extension on the second minus the passion.
The three older versions of this game are quite good for their respective consoles. Great comparison. I'm not so much a fan of the art style of the PlayStation 2 and GameCube version, though. By the way, the video title says "PC Kid" instead of "BC Kid" as I'm typing this. Just figured I'd let you know in case the error potentially affects the video's discoverability.
The Amiga is the best of the ports. SUCH a wonderful version, and very faithful to the PCE original. It goes to show that it was almost never the hardware's fault that a port on it flamed out how it did oh so often. Shame Factor 5 didn't get a chance to port Bonk's Revenge and Bonk's Big Adventure. The PS2 and Gamecube remakes... All I can think of is how they ruined Bonk's look. In his default mode, he's a smiling, happy boy in the original and contemporary ports... They gave him that derpy looking snarl thing in the remakes and I don't know why.
@@RetroCore And the words when he walks or swims, which adds unnecessary visual noise. Such a shame, really. They did so much right, but so, so much wrong as well.
Great stuff as usual Mark! I assume you didn't include the Game Boy version cause it was too different...? Sometimes you include it like your Shadow Dancer episode. Either way I was still wondering if you ever plan on doing an episode about Popful Mail and possibly Valis IV? :D
Yep, that's the main reason. If I had included that people would have also expected Super PC Genjin on the SFC and arcade game as well so I thought it was best to leave it out. I was actually bidding on a PC Engine CD version of Popful Mail the other day but had to give up as it sold for 12,650 yen. No way am I paying that much. Sadly, a lot of the better PC Engine games cost a small fortune these days.
I only played the Famicom port. I need to play the original if it's better. It's a pity that a huge quantity of remakes for PS2 didn't arrive to western markets Greetings from Spain!
Its a excellent game. Checked the resolution used on the Amiga, its seens to been around 306x220. but as some wrote, the game used unsable 57hz (or was its 56hz?) timing, a thing im was newer aware of that really. Dynablaster seens to do something similar with a cpu based timing. That seens has caused emulation issues shows here with the tunes sounds wrong. That game was clearly designed to run on a Amiga monitor, so with that in mind, the game was full screen. That genius. Im also remember the game ran fullscreen back in the days. Im have not seen that before or even aware of it before now. But im liked it back in the days.
Happen to have the TG-16 trilogy on my Wii, both Game Boy games (first one US, second one, the Japanese version, the NES one (got it for $20 locally over a decade ago, a steal even at that time for value, online the game cost way more on Ebay and the like), and the SNES version of Super Bonk, and the Japan only sequel on the SFC. I'd say I have my fill of Bonk games.
Yeah, they're kind of obscure due to being released under the Hudson collection label with the game title actually being a sub title. Star Soldier was also released like this on the Game Cube.
This is one of the games I really enjoy though I haven't played it in a while. I have all three PC Engine games in my collection. I was aware of the Famicom port (might have that one too but can't remember for sure since I have so many loose Famicom carts) but didn't know about the other ports.
Love the pc engine game a ton; the warm colors, fantastic soundtrack,and fun gameplay (as well as solid sense of charm) helps make this game very enjoyable in my opinion. Haven't played much of the nes game or gb game, but while I like what i've played of the gb game so far, I absolutely can't get into the nes game (edit: didn't know there was an amiga port till now but it looks really good . Soundtrack seems completely different but still fitting. Ps2 and gamecube version also look good, but im not sure how I feel about bonk's model . At least I can say it certaintly fits bonk's style very well. Really glad to hear the soundtrack for the remake is very faithfull too.)
I don't always slag Amiga games. Just that most of the time they are crap. There's a few amazing ports. This game, Snow Brothers and Water Kids are just a few.
Should we really be surprised each time an Amiga port turns out to be good? I mean, yeah, there was a lot of crap on that system, simply 'cause there was a ton of games, but from the top of my head: Dynablaster, Rodland, Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Bonk's Adventure, Arkanoid, Parasol Stars, Silk Worm, Pac mania, Snow Bros and Pang were all excellent or even AMAZING conversions.
Wonderful episode, I remember talking about the Amiga port (of this game) on a different episode . And indeed my memory was good, on this game :-) What is next ? Baby Jo on Battle Of The Ports ? So yeah, I feel like I called it long ago in a teasing post about ports to the Amiga. Like a "mini BOTP episode" of game ports on the Amiga :-) Seriously great episode, keep up the great work :-)
@@RetroCore You're not sure? How about this: The Great American Cross-country Road Race. C64, Apple II, Atari 800...that's it, I think. I really liked Enduro on the Atari VCS and I played that later, similar, game even more. Cheers!
no offense here Mark but what the use of Dolby Surround for this game ? I mean yeah more power to us in Music department but I kinda find its overkill for game like Bonks.
No idea. Probably just sound effects. I ran the game through my cinema system but didnt notice anything. It does say on the Factor 5 logo that this game is in Dolby Surround though.
You forgot the Wii WiiWare VC version, basically the PS2 and GameCube version but was sold on the Wii store. I have all three update versions but only played a bit of the Wii version a few years ago. It may be a NTSC J exclusive on Wii as my Wii is modified.
The Amiga game was a pleasant surprise. More console ports should have been like that... there's just no excuse for anything less! I'm noticing that Bonk, who used to look like Charlie Brown, looks more like Tommy from Rugrats when he's underwater in the remakes. Or in stomach acid. Ew.
What's this? A PS2/GC remake of a 16-bit-era game that isn't a morass of bland polygons and garbage-tier controls? The deuce you say! It's obviously just a hallucination. Seriously though, going all Yoshi's Story on the background and keeping everything else super-cartoony was the best choice.
What's weird about the PS2 and GC versions is that their assets are basically identical, and if played on an emu and upscaled, they're pretty much indistinguishable from one another. On real hardware, though, that PS2 interlacing is a killer. It also runs at a lower resolution (512x384 vs 640x480). I can't say that I love either, though. For me, Bonk is always going to have Turbografx nostalgia. I especially like part 2.
Yeah, having things interlaced on the PS2 was such a bad move. Makes many games look ugly. Even Dreamcast ran in Progressive Sacn and had a form of Anti aliasing.
Man Virtua Tennis 2 (Tennis 2K2 in the US, for some reason) on the PS2 was ugly compared to the Dreamcast and that version being on CD rather than DVD made my PS2 sound like a hovercraft whenever it loaded.
The best one by far is the Amiga version called BCkid is the one with the best music and soundfx also the best playlability, the gamecube version is the 2nd best but the music and gfx are too synthetic
Surprised how good the Amiga version looks! Not a huge fan of the GC/PS2 versions, the background look lovely but something is missing when compared to the PCE version.. It just looks like so much more fun on the PCE!
This and Dynablaster were such fantastic PCE conversions. Plus for the GC version looking better than PS2, chalk that up to the more powerful ATI graphics in the GC. Up until the Switch, Radeon graphics powered Nintendo systems since 2001/2002.
I think the main reason why most PS2 stuff looks rough is due to games mostly being interlaced. Dreamcast to PS2 ports look better on DC due to this very reason.
@@RetroCore that is usually the case, but I have seen games released on both with 480p support that didn't look as nice on the PS2 because of the hardware. "Metal Arms: A Glitch in the System" comes to mind. Same in regards to framerate stability.
I think they could have gotten away with it had they not so radically redesigned Bonk's design. I like my happy little cave boy, he didn't need 2000s edge.
Factor 5 never did anything wrong with the Amiga ports they handled. Fun fact: Hudson Soft and Sega originally planned to have Factor 5 to develop an unique Bomberman game for Mega Drive but they they ended up wanting Westone to port one of the PC Engine Bomberman games to Mega Drive. Is Super Bonk a good game? Should I give it a try? It's sad how Konami did EA to Hudson Soft.
Great game. I've always liked all of the Bonk titles. I wasn't aware of the Amiga and the later PS2 and NGC ones though. It's a shame that later developers felt the need to always have the background move every time the character jumps instead of leaving it static like the earlier version. It might make it look fancy and more advanced but all it does for me is make me queazy.
İs it really 6 6th gen console cannot handle 2D platformer properly? How's that possible:) PS2 can handle Shadow of Colossus and God of War perfectly while it slows down on B.C Kid?! Apperently it's a programming error:D
I don't see what I'd call a significant difference between the PS2 & Gamecube versions tho. Gamecube version is just a bit clearner due to the 480p output but other than that it looks nearly identical. Might run a bit better on the Gamecube as well but I'd call the difference a minor one.
Watching a CZcams video actually helps with the PS2 footage since it doesn't look as rough as it does on a real PS2. I used all real hardware for this video. Well, I used a Wii to play the Game Cube disc but that's okay since a Wii basically is a Game Cube.
such a fun game 🙂 TG16! never saw it for another system 🙂 go Amiga! Nintendo had a version too?! 😲 kool! i would have got this for my PS2 if i knew about it at the time. Hudson better recognize i got da skillz, ... i got the power! 🎶 youll never catch me i am like the eiffel tower 😎 sorry got carried away there 😋 huh, wonder why the PS2 was little rough 🤔 i request the first side by side track be in the next game music video! 🎧
The PS2 version runs at a lower resolution and interlaced. This was quite common on the PS2. Dreamcast, Game Cube and Xbox ran in Progressive scan most of the time.
NGC was more powerful than PS2 so well used, it was possible. Another example is Resident Evil 4, originally developed on NGC. Lot of videos on CZcams show the difference.
@@RetroCore I just launched the TFMX music from my Delitracker 2 game playlist and he's right, the music is slower and the pitch is lower. For me, you launched WinUAE with a 50hz display. But as I said in my comment, the game was designed for 60hz display in all countries. An unusual choice but it permits to the game to be smoother, faster and displayed in full screen like the original PCE version, maintaining the aspect ratio. I just launched the game on my CDTV and looked once again at your video and yes, the game is slower than what I have on my real Amiga screen 😂
if this had been on the mega drive/genesis it might have been a Mario killer along with sonic now you have to bonk 2 also bonk looks mean as hell in the ps2/gc game game
I'm not sure. The first game is too slow. The second instalment is where it really took off. We also have to remember that in Japan the PC Engine was a massive success. Far more popular than the Mega Drive ever was.
I remember Hudson running a competition in CVG to rename the Amiga version, As they realised calling the character "Bonk" was a euphamism for sex in the UK :D
Yep, someone else in the comments mentioned that too.
Im still amazed the Americans had a game lable called Spaz!
@@RetroCore jazz jackrabbit's brother is called spaz in those games too!
they also had a transformer literally called "spastic" as well!
Bloody hell. They'd never get away with that now. Actually, now Political Correctness has gone too far in my opinion.
@@RetroCore People being offended for others is what made political correction a laughing stock. Ironic as it's somethign they'd call "cultural appropriation" if someone else was doing it.
very surprising to learn this was on the Amiga AND that ran looked and sounded great too.
Yep, it's one of the best ports on the Amiga.
It's so sad that most of the games I actually paid for were shoddy ports while the only easy way to access quality efforts like this was to copy that floppy. 😕
Are the stages unique to the Amiga? They don't look familiar but it's been an eternity since I played the original.
It's Factor 5 what did you expect?
Bonk is so nostalgic, I perfectly remember VG&CE magazine mentioning him as Hudson's mascot (which I'm not sure is true since the only certainty I have is that he was PC Engine magazine's mascot). Thanks for the PT-BR subtitle, there are some errors but overall it was great, I admire the effort.
Glad people are using the other language subtitles. They're done using Google Translate so I guess they won't be perfect but good for those who don't understand English.
I was absolutely worried when I saw there was an Amiga version. However, after I saw the Factor 5 logo, my fears were washed away. If only there were more developers who knew how to work with the Amiga.
And there is another version of Bonk's Adventure. In the US, Bonk was a pack in CD game with the TurboDuo. Said CD also included Gate of Thunder, Bonk's Revenge, and Bomberman if you knew a code. Any differences compared to the original? Nah, it plays exactly the same. Same gameplay, same graphics, same good music. I only know of this version because I have it in my collection. :P
I like how the Amiga port is a very good representation of the original yet it's distinctively Amiga, with its colour gradients and whatnot. They used the copper chip to provide additional colours that an ordinary 16 or 32 colours mode wouldn't have granted and at the same time avoided taxing the hardware with other effects like parallax scrolling (absolutely doable on an Amiga 500, but often at the expense of smoothness, audio or gameplay logic). That's what a good developer does, using cleverly a machine resources. To be honest I had no idea about the other ports..I must say the PS2 might be the inferior one, but your capture looks exceptionally crisp and colourful for the machine.
I personally think the audio on the Amiga is better than the PC Engine. Factor 5 did a great job there.
@@RetroCore Factor 5 were a superb developer back then, shame they ended up being behind such dross as Lair Playstation 3 and Staw Wars:Rogue Squadron III on GameCube, where the controls literally killed both titles 😭
@@RetroCore Factor 5 have got to be one of the most underappreciated game developers.
I'd really like to see the Gamecube game get re-released on the Switch! Would probably look pretty slick upscaled to at least 720p & at 60FPS!
Love these vids. Having sold my whole retro collection recently it's nice to be able to use youtube to get a nostalgic fix whenever i need one.
Nice, but a shame you had to sell your collection.
@@RetroCore
Not when you consider how much i got and the fact i guess i could emulate if i wanted to. I got the games in the 90's and the prices i got are insane compared to what i paid. I game on PC mainly these days and having a high end PC costs good money. Before emulation i would have kept it probably but i bought a Retro Freak that emulates very well 8 & 16 bit stuff. My Neo Geo games i bought on the Switch which are superb versions. CD drives die at the drop of a hat so i don't regret it at all. I prefer quick and dirty 10 minute sessions of nostalgia rather than play old games properly with no save states these days. The guy i sold it all too was not even around in the 80's and 90's so at least it went to a good home.
I don't care what anyone says, but years ago in the 90's after having played the NES Bonk's Adventure via emulation on PC with a turbo controller, it's been one of my favorite NES side scrollers ever since, and the music is fantastic for the system to boot. It's just one of those games for me I play through every so often when I'm really really down, and it never fails to put a smile on my face.
As long as you like it, that's all that matters. 👍
I'm bald with a big head and a big face and I know what to cosplay when the world gets back to normal.
Lol, nice.
The Rogue Squadron fan in me wishes Factor 5 were still around.
Same here. They were a great development house.
well they couldve done better porting International SuperStar Soccer DeLuxe to the MD; missing sound samples
@Diskun Everything Sony touches turns to shit.
@@RetroCore you played Lair PS3 /Rogue Squadron III G. C???
Factor 5 lost it with both, borderline unplayable 'thanks' to control system issues.
@Diskun and they tried to blame reviewers for not understanding the controls for the failure of Lair.
I had it, it plane sucked 😭
It's funny to think that Bonk actually predated the 90's mascot platformer Sonic Wannabe craze. He feels like he could have totally been a contender, but felt more genuine with it's gimmicks and character's attitude than all the forgotten others. It's a shame he's all but forgotten.
Bonk was heavily used in promotions at the time as the unofficial mascot. I remember that Toys-R-Us would give you a Bonk sticker packet at Christmas when you bought TG-16 games
@@RetroFett They really tried to make him some sort of console mascot, but the console never really took off in the US. Who knows what could have been if the TG-16 was a stronger contender against Nintendo and SEGA at the time. At least he got to see his games on some Nintendo systems, even though we never got that second SNES game.
@@mightyfilm yeah...and now he belongs to Konami...
BC Kid on Amiga was a very good surprise. For the little history, when UBI Soft bough the rights for PC Kid, they annouced the arrival of the game with an add in magazines in which the French publisher asked to player to search for an new name for the conversion (the already had to rename Bomberman as Dynablaster, maybe for right specific aspects). Then, no news of the game during some months. You can imagine the surprise when we saw a conversion made by Factor 5 arriving on our screens. The guys behind the Turrican series! Of course, nothing to see with all these crappy conversions made in a hurry by inexperienced programmers. 50fps, a game screen smaller in height but much wider (256x224 on PC-Engine, 308x205 on Amiga), forced 60hz display on real Amiga, colorful GFX (in my opinion, more than on PC-Engine in outside levels thanks to copperlists and the 4096 color palette), nice musics from Chris Huelsbeck (including a main theme in 7 voices instead of 4) with of course sound effects. But most of all, all the content is here including the bonus stages! No levels missing or truncated to speed up development. I bought it immediatly and had no regret, playing it until I finished it, finding all secret bonuses and lives hidden in the levels, because yes, even the secrets are present. So respectful conversions were quite rare on Amiga ! ❤️
I didn't know about the PS2/NGC conversion. Very interesting. Graphics are not as beautiful as the ones of Yoshi's Island or some of the Kirby games using this kind of pencil graphics, but it's nice too. I will try it on my NGC using an iso 😜. Many thanks for the discover. It makes me think that a Battle Of The Ports about the original Bomberman could be very nice as there were a numerous ports of this one if I remember well 😍. Woops, no more coffee... have a nice week-end 😎
Nice write up about the contest to rename PC Kid. In the UK we also called PC Genjin, PC Kid. The name Bonk just didn't exist until the US game was released. BC Kid is an obvious yet perfect name.
I'd say this is the best Amiga port of any Japanese game ever.
@@RetroCore Yes, and the most impressive. There are some other nice conversions but usually not technically difficult ones. PC Kid is a very ambitious game and shows that something is possible in the hands of the good people. It's a clever conversion, Factor 5 shows here how they clearly known what to do, avoiding the Amiga flaws and taking part of its specific capabilities to compensate. A lesson for a lot of Amiga developers back in the days IMO. Even nowadays, it's always a pleasure to play it on my CDTV.
"game screen smaller in height but much wider (256x224 on PC-Engine, 308x205 on Amiga)."
@@TurboXray OMG WE HAVE A PCE FANBOY HERE !
Sorry for breaking your little PCE fanboy heart, really. The original version of PC Kid on PCE is obviously fabulous, there is nothing wrong with that. But I do not really see the point in searching to downgrade the Amiga version (it must be said that your nickname reveals your fanboy character a bit, you know) .
The more you count how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, the more it's funny. Very nice your PAR story with lots of super cool numbers, the fact is that a pixel is a pixel, that's it. And I'm sure we are all ok to say that 256x224 is less than 308x209 (with more things shown simultaneously on screen). And as I said on another comment, I played BC Kid game on a real CRT monitor on which I can modify display size so yes, I played BC Kid in full screen (with the good PAR, sir 🤣). You don't like the music? Of course because it's not always the same and it's unbelievable to consider to deal with another one, I suppose (and here it's played too slowly, the emulator setup isn't good). Personally, I think the PCE music is too aggressive an soundchip sounding compared to the sweet work of Chris Huelsbeck on Amiga, but hey I had not made the remark so far because after all, there is no accounting for taste. About the colors, of course that the use of the capacities of the Amiga compensates here its flaws, thanks to the talent of Factor 5. In outside levels, skies on PCE are so empty. On Amiga, colors are well choosen and give a really nice atmosphere. Amiga version doesn't have the moon moving in the sky but clouds move. And have you seen that lava is animated, not just using a color cycle?). And yes there are less colors in the tilesets but Sven Meier made very interesting choices to soften this aspect, particularly taking part of the 4096 color palette of the Amiga that offers more nuances than the 512 colors of the PCE. Just say that you don't like it, that's it. And then what is this remark about the choice of the game to convert in the series? it's reminding me of the schoolyard discussions when we were 12 years old.
BC Kid on Amiga is perfect in its own, just like PC Kid on PCE is perfect for the system it has been designed for. A nice game enjoyable on numerous systems is better than only on one 😉 Bye bye
@@iXien I'm a fanboy because I actually code for these old consoles and just corrected you with actual facts? Then you're an idiot. This isn't about which is better, it's about getting your shit right if you're gonna post with some kind of authority. You posted some shit you didn't fully understand, and I corrected you. Simple as that. Right back at yah, bye Felicia
you know it just astonishes me how fast video games were improving in that time from little bleeps in 1980, to super mario bros in 85 and mega man in 87 to bonk here on the pc engine.
Indeed. Then we could really see the leap in graphics. Now we need to see something in motion or look at the smaller details to tell a generation from another.
I ve read Factor 5 also planned to port Bonk 2 and 3, but sadly, Bonk 1 sold poorly (thanks to piracy).
Oh my God, this game brings me WAAAAAAAY back. Thanks for the review, you just reminded me of the first time I finished the FC version.
This is one of the rare occasions in which an Amiga port actually is quite good. The Amiga was really a powerful machine, but sadly as a game machine its reputation was tainted by awful develop and publisher companies. Yes, I am talking to you, U.S. Gold and Tiertex, among other shitty companies.
Some games on the Amiga were bad. But many more were great.
It’s the opposite of what you say: Amiga had & has a fantastic repution as a game machine.
Probe was another one that sucked.
@@fnjesusfreak Agreed... Seen it as cash cow 🐄
I bought (legitimately) Bonk's Adventure on Wii U back when Konami re-released it for Western territories in July 2016. Yes, it took 2 years and a half to people in Americas and Europe to get TG-16 games on Wii U Virtual Console.
I still got the entire trilogy on the Wii, back when the VC was still a thing for it. Also got the NES port for $20 locally, the game went even back then for way more online (close to $200 a decade or so ago, now it's $300+). The SNES got a good pair of Bonk games, so did the Game Boy.
Man, the Amiga port surprised me for being good (and then my surprise was taken away because of Factor 5 XD), but what really surprised me was the PS2/GC remakes. I knew Hudson made some of those back in the PS2 days, before the Konami buyout, but only had played the Adventure Island one.
Hudson also did a Star Soldier remake but I've never played that one.
Great it's almost 1AM and I see this .... THANKS! .... hopefully the kids will not wake me up too early.
Lol, never mind. At least you went to bed with something good to dream about 😊
Just started the video and I already know the Amiga port is great, because that's how I got to know the game and it is one of the finest games of the genre on the system. I also have a PC-Engine and I honestly think the Amiga version is better in many points.
But it was handled by Factor 5 and those guys knew what the heck they were doing while coding on Amiga and they ALSO KNEW how to make a good game properly. It was a very uncommon combination on Amiga development teams, people who could both make good use of the hardware and also make a good game.
Factor 5's port is also a class example for all those Amiga fan boys who blaim not having source code for the awful ports that plaque the system.
It's very sad that Factor 5 is no more 😢
@@RetroCore @Retro Core You're right, even it will be more difficult, not having the source code is not a fatality if you hire a talented and professional team rather than a high school student to make the job 😂 .
Ironically, it is by developing a game about dragons that Factor 5 will burn its wings. Announced in the line up of the PS3 as a revolution, taking advantage of the motion recognition included in the new Sony controller, expected as the killer app of the launch of the machine, LAIR turns out to be a catastrophic, ugly and uncontrollable shooter (trust me, I was already working in the distribution market and it was terrible for me to advice customers not to buy a Factor 5 game). Factor 5 never recovered from this fail.
@@RetroCore But... Hudson Soft is actually one of the publishers of this game on Amigawith also Ubisoft... they published 3 games for Amiga together... 2 of them were PC-Engine ports (Dynablaster and this) and the other one was an Amiga exclusive (Yo!Joe!)
So I am willing to bet they did have the source code available and proper support.
Having proper support (which includes access to source code and assets) and a decent deadline does make a huge difference. Mega-Drive version of SF2CE took about 9 months to be made by a team of around 16-18 people from the studio who made the original game, so they obviously had access to everything regarding the arcade game.
Amiga version of SF2 was done by a 5 people team during 6 months, during the first weeks of development they didn't even have a cabinet of SF2 to play the game and were doing stuff looking at a VHS of the game and going to a local arcade to play the game. And they were porting the game to two systems at the same time (Amiga and Atari ST).
If Capcom needed a bigger team and more time to make a proper version of the game, how can someone expect a smaller team with less time and no proper support to succeed?
I mean, shit, Richard Aplin had 6 months to port Final Fight for both Amiga and ST... *ALL ALONE* and just the PCB of the game to support him. He was a very acomplished coder, but he couldn't work miracles.
-
With that said, there were people who did wonders even without proper support.... Ronald Pieket Weeserik always comes to mind when I think about that, but he did have at least proper time to develop his games, unlike the guys working for USGold. And also, yeah, he was already very experienced when he begun coding for the Amiga, had done a lot of MSX games previously.
@@RetroCore But then, not to minimize Factor 5 talent. They really did wonderful stuff on every machine they worked on, and they did amazing things with the Amiga.
I am still gobsmacked to this day they actually managed to port Mega Turrican to the Amiga as Turrican 3 (Also the work of a solo coder), and make it work with just 512kb of ram.
I am not an excellent coder but I've coded on Amiga, and making anything that requires a fair amount of assets work with just 512kb of ram is pretty hard, because you need ram for frigging everything on Amiga. Turrican 3 is a BEAST of a game, and it was really magic to make it work with the most vanilla amiga setup possible... even though that game shows how much the Amiga couldn't cope with the Mega-Drive when both were coded properly (and Mega Turrican is a small wonder on the Mega-Drive).
@@rafaellima83 im can only agree it for both those games here. Often the games got rushed out as seen example wiht lion king, which the coder could not understand C code, but has to rewrite the game in assembler in quite short time. That was the reasons some levels was newer implemented. Its was due deadline, not because the size.
It's ironic and funny how what kids call today, "Demake," with homebrew efforts was essentially commonly referred to as ports back then. Every developer, or at least the ones worth their salt that cared about marketing and reach, did their own demakes with different teams so their game experience on advanced hardware was cascaded down to most weaker hardware and platforms on their own. As much as people joke about Atari and Sega stretching themselves thin financially during their run...they laid the template that pretty much everybody else has been following including Nintendo now.
There was a PC Genjin for Gameboy but that was more akin to Bonk's Revenge. I need to try the Amiga port soon because it reminds me of the SNES Bonk versions 😇😀
Amiga was really good 😄.. to be honest watching all versions.
I like that version the most 👌
It is certainly the surprise of the Ports.
Love Bonk on TG16! The FC/NES port is pretty fun, too, though like you said, the level designs are a lot different (and way easier). Can't say I'm a fan of the PS2/Gamecube version. Looks more like Yoshi's Story on the N64 than Bonk, imo.
There was a Game Boy port, too, wasn't there?
There is a Bonk game on Game Boy and SNES too but both are their own thing.
Really digging the music in the Famicom version.
TurboGrafx 16 is a great starting point. Amiga works well. NES is a streamlined offering. PS2 is breathtaking. GameCube is a vast improvement from PS2.
"I guess Hudson thought gamers of the Playstation 2 age didn't have the gaming skills of PC Engine players"
Me, having played through the remake's hard mode: orly?
Check out some ports to the PC Engine by NEC. man, they really ramped up the difficulty on their ports. Always wondered why they did that.
@@RetroCore I remember playing the PCE-CD version of garou densetsu special a long time ago, and even tho I'm crap at fighting games, I could still tell that it was even more difficult than the arcade version
The Famicon/NES version looks like a superb port. The slowdowns appear to be the case of the developers running out of time, by mid 1993 the platform already succumbed to the Megadrive/SNES. So it probably was a case of launch it now in the middle of the year, before the kids got a better machine in the Christmas.
Another great Battle of the Ports. I played this back in the day. It looked great on the Amiga and Gamecube
Pleasantly surprised by the Amiga port. One of my favorite platforming games on the PC Engine. It's a shame the series probably died with Konami's acquisition of Hudson soft.
Yeah, Konami not only killed themselves but Hudson as well.
I knew about the Amiga (Factor 5 FTW!) and Famicom ports but not the 6th gen remake. Neat!
Would you believe it if I said that just yesterday I was playing this and thought to myself "this is a game I don't remember seeing on Battle of the Ports! ". Awesome! You became part of the zeitgeist, I guess 😎
Lol, now that is a coincidence.
There is a Gameboy version too, under the name "Bonk's Adventure".
I mainly know this game thanks to its Amiga conversion. I played it a lot and still play it regularly on my arcade machine under AmigaOS !
There's also an arcade and SNES game too but they're all different from the original.
Do you plan on doing a Battle of the Ports episode for Ys (1987)?
Sometime in the future it will be done. RPGs are hard to do since they require a lot of play time.
@@RetroCore understandable
Whenever it happens, I'll definitely be there to see it 👍
@@RetroCore But what better RPG than the first Ys for this endevour, an RPG that only takes 5 or 6 hours to finish. And I guess there's no other RPG with that many ports and conversions.
One of my faves of all time! And the Amiga and Gamecube releases ain't no slouches either
I need to get back into this series. I didn't have too many PC/Turbo games growing up but I play the hell out of Ninja Spirit & this game as a kid.
I've only recently been getting in to PC Engine myself. I've had one for so many years but didn't really care for it. Now though I am discovering so many great games.
I grew up playing Bonk on pc engine and to this day I still consider it kind of a classic. I had no idea they revamped it for game cube and ps2! Thank you for sharing this! Looks like I have some hunting to do 😁
Zool was marketed as Amiga's answer to console quality platformers but this looks like it should have that reputation! looks like it was released around the same time so might have been overlooked, shame!
Just imagine what a pile of dung it would if been if us gold and teirtex had of converted. Great to see the hardware being used well and the 2 button control implemented. No excuse why every game didn't have the option..not like it cost anything to program in and give people the choice of 2 button or up if u only had 1 button . All games play So much better with seperate jump button. Well done factor 5 for taking the time and effort to give us amiga owners a version to he proud of
What is so wrong is crap like Tiertex are still around while the talented Factor 5 are not.
I also absolutely agree about the second button option. Not using that as standard just shows how lazy and poor most Amiga devs were.
@@RetroCore you can't release shite like Lair and expect to stay in business.
Probe Software and Imagitec Design, another couple of conversion goto companies from the ST and Amiga era , bit the bullet as well, so how the hell Tiertex survive, just boggles the mind.
@@thefurthestmanfromhome1148 acclaim brought probe for 40 million dollars I think
homebrew of Bonk is being worked on for the Master System
Cool as long as it's not using the Alex Kidd engine.
Thanks for a great video. I now have a real pc engine to play it. 😊
The remaster looks surprisingly appealing will keep an eye out for it.
I remember the full page ad for this in a Punisher comic book of all places back in the day. TTI, NEC's American branch just never knew how to market thing properly over here. I mean you have seen the infamous Johnny Turbo comics, right?
Yep. The company in charge of US distribution were clueless for sure.
at start of the video im already askin myself: how will retro core bury the amiga this time?
after the amiga section: i knew he couldnt, not this time:)
btw b.c. kid on the amiga is full screen, but you played it in pal mode. it is a 320*200/60hz game by design (even if its technically been made in europe, but by the worlds probably only non japanese japanese developers:). so you should play it in ntsc mode, and have the smooth, fullscreen experience, as it was intended).
all american made games and a lot of european ports of american/japanese games were like that, incl. even some original european games (or, in some cases a separate ntsc version were made). 3rd party hw ntsc/pal switcher modifications were almost as common as the 512kb ram upgrade amongst a500/500+ users (later amigas w ecs/ks2.0 and up are all have this feature built in). if you were an amiga gamer it didnt matter that much if you lived in a pal or ntsc country, you got both (pal screens for work, ntsc for the games:)
Well good thing factor 5 developed games on the Amiga. Too many mediocre ports for the system. Im impressed by the remake on Ps2 and Gamecube. It looks kinda like modern remakes of old platformers. Very nice looking graphics.
I had no idea that this was ported to the Amiga, I wish Factor 5 had handled more Amiga conversions, I wonder why none of the other home computers got a port.
Factor 5 are one of the few companies that made the Amiga sing. Such a talented studio.
The standard ST hardware would of really struggled with something like this, look at how gimped ST versions of Amiga titles like Wolfchild etc are and I say that as an ex 520STFM owner at the time.
There wasn't the installed user base to warrant doing an STE Specific version, ST sales on the decline as it was.
Missed opportunity to call the GameCube version GC Genjin
Very good 👍😂
Factor 5 clearly did not know how to make Amiga ports! I mean what were they thinking when allowing 2 button controls, differentiating the games from their ST counterparts and placing hardwork and dedication to their products? Worst of all, they thought players would like to listen to both sound fx and music at the same time!
Lol, I'm sure that's exactly how most Amiga devs thought 🤣
This was the first PC Engine game I ever played, but it was many years after it was current. Since I was checking out the platform long after it was on the market, the first Bonk seemed like a great place to start. It was way more fun than I was expecting. Plus the game has a lot of character. I can definitely see why they made Bonk the system mascot. The second game is even better, but I like this one a lot too.
Nice to see the Amiga version turn out so well. Seeing Factor 5 involved, it's not so surprising, even if it's uncommon on the Amiga. As for the remakes, the style doesn't quite appeal to me, though I can appreciate some of the creativity there, especially for the backgrounds. I do find the scrolling to be a bit unpleasant, especially the vertical scroll when the character jumps. It seems to scroll more and faster than the original. That snapping up and down messes with my head, like a motion sickness or something. Anyway, good to see this one on the channel.
I think the second game is easily the best of the 3. It's as if they found what made the original a little clunky, fixed that and threw in a load of new ideas. The third game just seems like an extension on the second minus the passion.
The three older versions of this game are quite good for their respective consoles. Great comparison. I'm not so much a fan of the art style of the PlayStation 2 and GameCube version, though.
By the way, the video title says "PC Kid" instead of "BC Kid" as I'm typing this. Just figured I'd let you know in case the error potentially affects the video's discoverability.
Ah, it's meant to say PC Kid as that was the name it was originally called in Europe before the American Bonk name was a thing.
@@RetroCore Oh, interesting. Thanks for clarifying.
The Amiga is the best of the ports. SUCH a wonderful version, and very faithful to the PCE original. It goes to show that it was almost never the hardware's fault that a port on it flamed out how it did oh so often. Shame Factor 5 didn't get a chance to port Bonk's Revenge and Bonk's Big Adventure.
The PS2 and Gamecube remakes... All I can think of is how they ruined Bonk's look. In his default mode, he's a smiling, happy boy in the original and contemporary ports... They gave him that derpy looking snarl thing in the remakes and I don't know why.
He also changes in to a monkey for some reason on the PS2 and Game Cube. Looks stupid.
@@RetroCore And the words when he walks or swims, which adds unnecessary visual noise. Such a shame, really. They did so much right, but so, so much wrong as well.
Great stuff as usual Mark! I assume you didn't include the Game Boy version cause it was too different...? Sometimes you include it like your Shadow Dancer episode. Either way I was still wondering if you ever plan on doing an episode about Popful Mail and possibly Valis IV? :D
Yep, that's the main reason. If I had included that people would have also expected Super PC Genjin on the SFC and arcade game as well so I thought it was best to leave it out.
I was actually bidding on a PC Engine CD version of Popful Mail the other day but had to give up as it sold for 12,650 yen. No way am I paying that much. Sadly, a lot of the better PC Engine games cost a small fortune these days.
@@RetroCore Have you considered emulating it? That's how I was able to play it. TurboEngine 16 does wonders.
I only played the Famicom port. I need to play the original if it's better. It's a pity that a huge quantity of remakes for PS2 didn't arrive to western markets
Greetings from Spain!
Hi, nice to see viewers from Spain.
I'd recommend trying the PC Engine version as it is much better to play than the Famicom port.
Its a excellent game. Checked the resolution used on the Amiga, its seens to been around 306x220.
but as some wrote, the game used unsable 57hz (or was its 56hz?) timing, a thing im was newer aware of that really. Dynablaster seens to do something similar with a cpu based timing.
That seens has caused emulation issues shows here with the tunes sounds wrong.
That game was clearly designed to run on a Amiga monitor, so with that in mind, the game was full screen. That genius. Im also remember the game ran fullscreen back in the days.
Im have not seen that before or even aware of it before now. But im liked it back in the days.
I played the Amiga port with single button pad and up for jump. I didn't know this supported 2 button pads! Dammit hahah
Oh well. Maybe something for the future 😉
I didn't know this game have a remake! I still prefer the original though
nice video as usual :) have a prefrence for the crips colour on the amiga and the great sountrack
why the gameboy version was not in this BOTP ?
Different game on the GameBoy.
@@RetroCore same name but different game. Its in a certain way a game that will never be on battle of the port !
Happen to have the TG-16 trilogy on my Wii, both Game Boy games (first one US, second one, the Japanese version, the NES one (got it for $20 locally over a decade ago, a steal even at that time for value, online the game cost way more on Ebay and the like), and the SNES version of Super Bonk, and the Japan only sequel on the SFC. I'd say I have my fill of Bonk games.
Excellent video, i did not knew the ps2 and GC versions
Yeah, they're kind of obscure due to being released under the Hudson collection label with the game title actually being a sub title. Star Soldier was also released like this on the Game Cube.
Pc engine and Amiga versions ftw.
This is one of the games I really enjoy though I haven't played it in a while. I have all three PC Engine games in my collection. I was aware of the Famicom port (might have that one too but can't remember for sure since I have so many loose Famicom carts) but didn't know about the other ports.
It's one of those games with a later remake that not many people know about.
Love the pc engine game a ton; the warm colors, fantastic soundtrack,and fun gameplay (as well as solid sense of charm) helps make this game very enjoyable in my opinion. Haven't played much of the nes game or gb game, but while I like what i've played of the gb game so far, I absolutely can't get into the nes game (edit: didn't know there was an amiga port till now but it looks really good . Soundtrack seems completely different but still fitting. Ps2 and gamecube version also look good, but im not sure how I feel about bonk's model . At least I can say it certaintly fits bonk's style very well. Really glad to hear the soundtrack for the remake is very faithfull too.)
I don't like the way Bonk changes in to a monkey on the new PS2 agme Game Cube versions. It just seems very odd.
Love Bonk Mark. Hard not to think of cavemen . and not thinking of him to come in mind. 8^)
Anthony..
He's just as iconnic as Captain Caveman 😎
Never knew there were ports to this game. Wonder what a mega drive port would’ve looked like.
I would imagine very much like the PC Engine but with loads of parallax scrolling :)😀
You gave the Amiga version a good review....are you feeling ok ??
I don't always slag Amiga games. Just that most of the time they are crap. There's a few amazing ports. This game, Snow Brothers and Water Kids are just a few.
@@RetroCore
Toki and sly spy:secret agent were also fantastic arcade game ports on Amiga.
@@theoldpcgamer77 don't forget rainbow islands, rodland, silkworm and ghosts'n'goblins
Should we really be surprised each time an Amiga port turns out to be good? I mean, yeah, there was a lot of crap on that system, simply 'cause there was a ton of games, but from the top of my head: Dynablaster, Rodland, Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Bonk's Adventure, Arkanoid, Parasol Stars, Silk Worm, Pac mania, Snow Bros and Pang were all excellent or even AMAZING conversions.
Wonderful episode, I remember talking about the Amiga port (of this game) on a different episode . And indeed my memory was good, on this game :-) What is next ? Baby Jo on Battle Of The Ports ? So yeah, I feel like I called it long ago in a teasing post about ports to the Amiga. Like a "mini BOTP episode" of game ports on the Amiga :-) Seriously great episode, keep up the great work :-)
Baby Jo? Never heard of that.
For the next show I'm thinking to do..... Hmm..... Not sure.
@MrWolverineDK Baby Jo! I'm thinking Mark won't be adding that to his list. :-)
@@RetroCore You're not sure? How about this: The Great American Cross-country Road Race. C64, Apple II, Atari 800...that's it, I think. I really liked Enduro on the Atari VCS and I played that later, similar, game even more. Cheers!
@@videogamebookreviews Who knows, you might be surprised. Also I think Mark makes a fantastic show, that I have followed for years :-)
Glad I got the 3 PC Kid games a short while back .. before they became silly priced... also got Punknic Cyborgs... ✌️
Pucknic Cyborgs? I've not heard of that one before.
Asking for a friend... ^^ Where is the intro music coming from? :)
There was an Amiga version? That's weird.
So sad how all the chavs made PS2 the dominant console, when the GameCube, Xbox and even Dreamcast had much cleaner graphics.
You are so right about that. Same with the PS3. Multiplatform games 90% of the time were better on the 360.
no offense here Mark but what the use of Dolby Surround for this game ? I mean yeah more power to us in Music department but I kinda find its overkill for game like Bonks.
No idea. Probably just sound effects. I ran the game through my cinema system but didnt notice anything. It does say on the Factor 5 logo that this game is in Dolby Surround though.
It sounds cool and it's not an overkill at all
Honestly. I never saw the later ports. Interesting. I will have to obtain a totally legal copy later.
Haha!
Lol, on a white CD or USB stick. Yeah, not many know about the PS2 and Game Cube ports due to the way they were marketed as Hudson Clasics.
@@RetroCore Odd to think they stopped making Bonk games.
You forgot the Wii WiiWare VC version, basically the PS2 and GameCube version but was sold on the Wii store. I have all three update versions but only played a bit of the Wii version a few years ago. It may be a NTSC J exclusive on Wii as my Wii is modified.
The Wii ware version is either the Game Cube game or a different game. This is why it wasn't featured.
The Amiga game was a pleasant surprise. More console ports should have been like that... there's just no excuse for anything less!
I'm noticing that Bonk, who used to look like Charlie Brown, looks more like Tommy from Rugrats when he's underwater in the remakes. Or in stomach acid. Ew.
Yeah, and he turns in to a monkey too in the remake. So odd.
There was an arcade port of this under other name if I recall correctly.
The arcade game is BC Kid, and is not a port of the first Bonk, but another game in the series released by Kaneko.
What's this? A PS2/GC remake of a 16-bit-era game that isn't a morass of bland polygons and garbage-tier controls? The deuce you say! It's obviously just a hallucination.
Seriously though, going all Yoshi's Story on the background and keeping everything else super-cartoony was the best choice.
I bet certain CZcams "stars" will suddenly find out about this, act as if they've known about it for years and claim its a hidden Gem 😂
What's weird about the PS2 and GC versions is that their assets are basically identical, and if played on an emu and upscaled, they're pretty much indistinguishable from one another. On real hardware, though, that PS2 interlacing is a killer. It also runs at a lower resolution (512x384 vs 640x480). I can't say that I love either, though. For me, Bonk is always going to have Turbografx nostalgia. I especially like part 2.
Yeah, having things interlaced on the PS2 was such a bad move. Makes many games look ugly. Even Dreamcast ran in Progressive Sacn and had a form of Anti aliasing.
Man Virtua Tennis 2 (Tennis 2K2 in the US, for some reason) on the PS2 was ugly compared to the Dreamcast and that version being on CD rather than DVD made my PS2 sound like a hovercraft whenever it loaded.
The best one by far is the Amiga version called BCkid is the one with the best music and soundfx also the best playlability, the gamecube version is the 2nd best but the music and gfx are too synthetic
Surprised how good the Amiga version looks! Not a huge fan of the GC/PS2 versions, the background look lovely but something is missing when compared to the PCE version.. It just looks like so much more fun on the PCE!
The Amiga version is a massive surprise. Factor 5 really could make a system preform well.
Time traveling comment.
They sure could. Factor 5 were a great company.
@TrueSinister Indeed. It did have it's limitations but it could do so much better than 99% of the crap we saw being released on the system.
Have you ever done a BotP for Caveman Ninja (joe and mac)? I don't think I haven't seen one from you.
Yeah, I did Joe and Mac many years ago. That also has an Amiga port.
@@RetroCore And it's terrible 😂
This and Dynablaster were such fantastic PCE conversions. Plus for the GC version looking better than PS2, chalk that up to the more powerful ATI graphics in the GC. Up until the Switch, Radeon graphics powered Nintendo systems since 2001/2002.
I think the main reason why most PS2 stuff looks rough is due to games mostly being interlaced. Dreamcast to PS2 ports look better on DC due to this very reason.
@@RetroCore that is usually the case, but I have seen games released on both with 480p support that didn't look as nice on the PS2 because of the hardware. "Metal Arms: A Glitch in the System" comes to mind. Same in regards to framerate stability.
Curse me from saying so but I think the Amiga version is the best looking.
I wouldn't say you were wrong. It does look very nice.
great episode
Thanks.
PS2 version is atrocious... what a shame. PC Engine pixel art never gets old though.
I think they could have gotten away with it had they not so radically redesigned Bonk's design. I like my happy little cave boy, he didn't need 2000s edge.
No matter how slick the modern versions look, the PC Engine original is still superior: Bonks is way better drawn than its 3D rendition.
Very true. But at least they didn't completely ruin the new versions by making them a 3D game.
@@RetroCore Indeed, at least that. But still, I'd rather play the PC Engine version.
I played a GameBoy version but not sure if it was based on Bonk 1?
The Game Boy games shared names with the TG-16 games, but under the hood they were quite different from their TG-16 counterparts.
It's it's own game. The SFC also has a bonk game but again, it's its own thing.
Factor 5 never did anything wrong with the Amiga ports they handled.
Fun fact: Hudson Soft and Sega originally planned to have Factor 5 to develop an unique Bomberman game for Mega Drive but they they ended up wanting Westone to port one of the PC Engine Bomberman games to Mega Drive.
Is Super Bonk a good game?
Should I give it a try?
It's sad how Konami did EA to Hudson Soft.
I'm sure I have a demo of the Factor 5 Bomberman somewhere.
Great game. I've always liked all of the Bonk titles. I wasn't aware of the Amiga and the later PS2 and NGC ones though. It's a shame that later developers felt the need to always have the background move every time the character jumps instead of leaving it static like the earlier version. It might make it look fancy and more advanced but all it does for me is make me queazy.
Great video, as always. I might be branded a heretic, but I thought the GameCube version looked the best.
İs it really 6 6th gen console cannot handle 2D platformer properly? How's that possible:) PS2 can handle Shadow of Colossus and God of War perfectly while it slows down on B.C Kid?! Apperently it's a programming error:D
GB version was skipped?
I don't see what I'd call a significant difference between the PS2 & Gamecube versions tho. Gamecube version is just a bit clearner due to the 480p output but other than that it looks nearly identical. Might run a bit better on the Gamecube as well but I'd call the difference a minor one.
Watching a CZcams video actually helps with the PS2 footage since it doesn't look as rough as it does on a real PS2. I used all real hardware for this video. Well, I used a Wii to play the Game Cube disc but that's okay since a Wii basically is a Game Cube.
such a fun game 🙂 TG16!
never saw it for another system 🙂 go Amiga!
Nintendo had a version too?! 😲 kool!
i would have got this for my PS2 if i knew about it at the time. Hudson better recognize i got da skillz, ... i got the power! 🎶 youll never catch me i am like the eiffel tower 😎
sorry got carried away there 😋
huh, wonder why the PS2 was little rough 🤔
i request the first side by side track be in the next game music video! 🎧
The PS2 version runs at a lower resolution and interlaced. This was quite common on the PS2. Dreamcast, Game Cube and Xbox ran in Progressive scan most of the time.
stuff i should have known already. ty, i happen to like those fun facts
So a Gamecube port being better than PS2?
Not often do I hear that!
NGC was more powerful than PS2 so well used, it was possible. Another example is Resident Evil 4, originally developed on NGC. Lot of videos on CZcams show the difference.
I think the music in the Amiga version isn't running correctly.
Why is that?
Having played the Amiga version a lot and fnished it a few times... I also don't see whats wrong with the music here?
@@RetroCore The pitch is a lot lower
Hey, I just launched the TFMX music from my Delitracker 2 playlist on my Workbench! You're right! You have a good ear 😎
@@RetroCore I just launched the TFMX music from my Delitracker 2 game playlist and he's right, the music is slower and the pitch is lower. For me, you launched WinUAE with a 50hz display. But as I said in my comment, the game was designed for 60hz display in all countries. An unusual choice but it permits to the game to be smoother, faster and displayed in full screen like the original PCE version, maintaining the aspect ratio. I just launched the game on my CDTV and looked once again at your video and yes, the game is slower than what I have on my real Amiga screen 😂
👍
I think you missed one more port is on game boy
The GB version is a different game. Same name though.
What about snes ones and gb ones? Arcade too
All completely different games.
if this had been on the mega drive/genesis it might have been a Mario killer along with sonic now you have to bonk 2 also bonk looks mean as hell in the ps2/gc game game
I'm not sure. The first game is too slow. The second instalment is where it really took off.
We also have to remember that in Japan the PC Engine was a massive success. Far more popular than the Mega Drive ever was.
What about the Gameboy version? GB Genjin
Not a port of the original Bonk.
Different game like the snes one.