Green Beret was an action arcade game released by Konami in 1985. It is remembered for its Cold War setting and its reliance on the player using mainly a knife to dispatch enemies, although you were able to collect many different weapons to aid you in combat. Green Beret was one of the hardest games I had ever played and yet was one of the games that gave me the best memories! Sadly however if you had the Commodore 16 version, it was widely regarded as one of the worst video games ever made. Well at least until now...
Welcome to Green Beret C16 by Arlasoft. A new version of the game that doesn't just feature almost all the features from the arcade version. But smooth real-time scrolling, four full-length arcade maps, via multi-load, detailed multi-colour graphics using more of the machine's 121 colours, soft sprite masking so there aren't big blue blocks around characters, a flame thrower, rocket launcher and grenades, and all the ground enemies (including kickboxer, dogs, grenadiers, cannons) with added theme music! Seriously this is one of the best releases for the C16 and worth checking out at the link below.
Links :1) Source
Possibly from worst game ever to best game of the platform. Awesome!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm a bit spoiled with owning only a C64 and an Amiga, but this still doesn't look good compared to the C64 version. At least the "121 colors" don't show up, and music is anemic compared to C64 version. Can anyone explain to me, why would anyone want a C16, it wasn't that much cheaper than a C64 in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't created to compete with the C64 version but to fix the original which was dire. I mean hell, play the Amstrad version compared to the C64 and you'll be tearing your hair out in difficulty frustration :D
DeleteIt was *much* cheaper when it was dumped here via supermarket chains, as was the Plus/4 a little later. But no, you wouldn’t have wanted one for gaming. The sound was bad and it lacked hardware sprites. So I’m guessing most kids who got one were disappointed. But it was great for getting into programming (the Plus/4 even more so) as it had tons of new debugging/disk/graphics/sound commands like DO/LOOP/UNTIL, CIRCLE, BOX, DRAW, DIRECTORY, COPY, BACKUP, RENUMBER, TRON/TROFF, GETKEY and JOY, a simple built-in machine code monitor/assembler, easily programmable function (basically: macro) keys, Esc key codes that let you scroll the text screen up/down set up simple windowing… and 121 colours including EIGHT whole shades of pitch black! So, yeah, my pre-teen self had fun with it even if the best stuff is only coming out in recent years (check the top list at plus4world).
DeleteOk, I see, the original C16 version was even a lot worse than this one, looked at videos. The C64 was indeed expensive at its launch in 1982, but the price came down a lot in the coming years, I think the best time to buy it was in 1985-86, in 1987 the A500 came out, and it was the king of home computers for years.
DeleteYes, in early 1985 the price of a C64 was $149 according to Wikipedia, while a C16 cost $99 in 1984, when it was released. This price difference was not great, as I said.
DeleteThe C16 (+ 1531 datasette) was sold for 150 DM around Christmas 1985, down from the original 250 or so, while the C64 still went for ~500 and the new C128 for over 900. It was a serious difference, and the low price of the “supermarket C16” led to quite a few sales. (Prices according to ads and my own notes in a Dec 85 magazine issue)
DeleteIt's obviously a coding challenge and the result is just mind blowing. Seriously try to code something like that on the C16. With this release Arlasoft proves again to be one of the most talented coder still coding today on retro machines, and especially Commodore machines.
DeleteWe had a Plus/4 (for most practical purposes just a 64k C16), bought with Script/Plus for about half the price of a C64 at the time. My Dad bought it for word processing because it was cheaper, and because he knew he wouldn't have to fight us for it to play games. (We still ended up playing some games on it, all written for C16, mostly by Mastertronic.) We had a C64 as well, as did every second household. For writing programs in BASIC, and with its proper disk commands, the Plus/4 was actually much nicer to use than a C64 - more like a C128 in C128 mode. One thing that I remember is the screen itself was a much nicer display than the Vic-II on the C64 - smaller border, clearer graphics/colours and less 'noise' on the screen than the C64. The sound was rubbish though - still grates to this day.
DeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteFantastic!
ReplyDeleteBytheway, I play newish Games for the ZX81 - No colours, No Sound. Yet fantastic as well when considering what can be done for that system.
PS I don't believe many people were Happy If they bought a C16 mainly for gaming purpose.
It's kind of mystifying that this machine has a library of games. I understand the Plus 4/16 is less capable as a game machine than Commodore's C64... you'd think all the publishing would have been done on the more popular and powerful computer.
ReplyDeleteBudget games did okay (one Mastertronic title sold over 170,000 units, their number 1 selling game of all consoles) - but full price games were often rubbish, with producers paying a pittance to substandard/unsupported coders to produce barely functioning rubbish - like Green Beret, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Commando.. tapes were cheap to produce, and software companies had no scruples.
ReplyDelete