ChinnyVision - Nemesis

[chinnyhill10]

Oh if only Konami had done the CPC version themselves instead of letting Imagine/Ocean do a shoddy port. Would never happen of course.


[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou0yEqFvmmo[/youtube]

[Zoe Robinson]

I'll probably get hate for this from the C64 fanboys but those low-colour end of level bosses aren't pleasant to look at on the C64.


The Amstrad's sprites may not be moving well (I agree that it needed more time to polish the code because there's no way that should be moving that slowly) but at least there was some colour to it - the CPC and the MSX bosses looked pretty similar to me; which was interesting.

Yes it's slow and lacking in polish, but the CPC version looked nicer than the C64 version.

[chinnyhill10]

I'll probably get hate for this from the C64 fanboys but those low-colour end of level bosses aren't pleasant to look at on the C64.


The Amstrad's sprites may not be moving well (I agree that it needed more time to polish the code because there's no way that should be moving that slowly) but at least there was some colour to it - the CPC and the MSX bosses looked pretty similar to me; which was interesting.

Yes it's slow and lacking in polish, but the CPC version looked nicer than the C64 version.

I think the CPC version is horribly garish with ill defined sprites. It really is a bit of a runt of a game. Half finished, ugly and not optimised at all. The Spectrum version also suffers from slowdown but it is less evident.

[CraigsBar]

Great video.... But now I want an everdrive for my gameboy pocket!

[Zoe Robinson]

I think the CPC version is horribly garish with ill defined sprites.

We'll have to disagree. I kind of like how it looks.

[chinnyhill10]

Great video.... But now I want an everdrive for my gameboy pocket!

Nemesis carts (if you can live without the box) are very cheap. Alot of boxless Gameboy carts are in fact.

[mahlemiut]

I kinda like Nemesis on the CPC also... Yes, it's damn hard, but I find the arcade version pretty hard too. (I prefer Salamander on the arcade, much easier, at least the versions with weapon pickup, rather than power ups)

Japan certainly often do a pretty good job at arcade ports - the X68000 included Gradius with the system, and is practically arcade perfect (as most X68000 arcade ports are )  It doesn't seem to matter whether or not Konami did it themselves or not (Sharp ported Gradius themselves).  Maybe you need to invest in one...

[dodogildo]

Cool video. I don't share all of your opinions on the CPC version of course. It was fun and addictive for me playing Nemesis back then on CPC. (till I see the C64 version at a friend's house one day)

It was always like this, those days. Shooters were clearly superior on C64 pissing me off.. Look at the ship's additional animations while moving vertically, or speeding up, or crashing..

[ukmarkh]

What a crap conversion on the CPC, up there with Green Beret! 

[Puresox]

What a crap conversion on the CPC, up there with Green Beret! 

A soon as you see the Mode 0 font on the start up screen, you know you are in for some top level crap

[ukmarkh]

With the exception of ChaseHQ! 


Seriously, these games, Nemesis, Salamander, R-Type and Green Beret, these should have been killer titles for the CPC. It's a massive insult to the people who bought these games! If I'd have known back then, that the CPC would play host to shitty conversions for most of its life, I probably wouldn't have bought one. The machine is more than capable, and I was robbed massively by nearly every developer of hundreds of pounds.   

[TFM]

There were enough good games too. Consider how much money a game did cost back the day. Nobody - I guess - did buy a new game every week (or month). All the games I bought I had as Cracks first, and if I liked em then I bought the original. But never bought cheap crap. So they didn't make any money with me at least. Of course lots of people just bought games without knowing their quality.

[ivarf]

What a crap conversion on the CPC, up there with Green Beret! 

I prefer Green Beret and Nemesis over the sluggish overhyped Chase HQ. In my book Nemesis and Green Beret on the CPC are good games. We have had many worsen, included Chase HQ

[Shaun M. Neary]

Chase HQ sluggish and overhyped? It's one of the faster racers on the CPC! 


I actually enjoyed Nemesis and Green Beret. I never really compared to other machines playing as a kid. The way I looked at it, I was paying a few quid for a copy of an arcade game that I didn't have to put in 10p coins every time I wanted to play. And Green Beret was quite playable. Nemesis was was difficult but that's not exactly straying from it's arcade counterpart. I got as far as level 2 and graphically, it's definitely not the worst.

Gotta put age into consideration here. Early to mid 87, coders were still getting to grips with the machine, there weren't many graphics marvels for the Amstrad around that time! You had rare gems in the likes of Gryzor and Renegade, but most of the more popular stuff came after this time period.

Granted, time hasn't aged a lot of Amstrad games well, but I won't lie, I killed many hours playing Nemesis just TRYING to get past level 2!

[Puresox]

Cpc had a plethora of decent car /Race games, Super cycle went at a superb pace, Wec Lemans, Continental circus, Chase HQ (You must be one of the few that didnt like it?) .Race games was a genre that we could compete with C64 and win .There are hundreds of other racers that I haven't mentioned that were fast and fun .

[EgoTrip]

The scrolling on the MSX version is nauseating. I'm not surprised the Game Boy version is the best, as Nintendo generally have a high quality control level.

[reidrac]

The scrolling on the MSX version is nauseating. I'm not surprised the Game Boy version is the best, as Nintendo generally have a high quality control level.

Yes, I think the scroll of the MSX version it is quite awful. Perhaps if the CPC  (or the Speccy) version had the background scrolling 1 character at a time they'd play as nice as the MSX version (and without hardware sprites).

@chinnyhill10 says that the MSX plays great, but just looking at the video, I think I wouldn't bother because of the scroll.

Nemesis didn't age very well anyway.

[chinnyhill10]

The scrolling on the MSX version is nauseating. I'm not surprised the Game Boy version is the best, as Nintendo generally have a high quality control level.

People keep saying this and I'm pretty sure without ever having played it.


I promise that it just isn't an issue because your eyes are always on the sprites which are 50fps smooth.


It's a totally different experience to some games on the CPC where everything including the sprites move a few pixels at a time.


I've spent alot of time with the MSX version (the cartridge cost a fair bit to buy) and for me its not a big issue at all. It plays really well.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Cpc had a plethora of decent car /Race games, Super cycle went at a superb pace, Wec Lemans, Continental circus, Chase HQ (You must be one of the few that didnt like it?) .Race games was a genre that we could compete with C64 and win .There are hundreds of other racers that I haven't mentioned that were fast and fun .

I'm gonna assume the Chase HQ reference wasn't aimed at me as I defended it. 
I find it quite amusing that anyone could call Nemesis's sprites for the end of level blocky, and then justify the graphical mess that was Continental Circus. To me, that game always looked like someone had barfed on it, on the flip side, it was furiously addictive to play.

Super Cycle was way ahead of it's time in terms of graphics and speed for the Amstrad. It did a stellar job of filling the void left when Hang On (the original) never made it to an 8bit computer.

[Puresox]

I'm gonna assume the Chase HQ reference wasn't aimed at me as I defended it. 
I find it quite amusing that anyone could call Nemesis's sprites for the end of level blocky, and then justify the graphical mess that was Continental Circus. To me, that game always looked like someone had barfed on it, on the flip side, it was furiously addictive to play.

Super Cycle was way ahead of it's time in terms of graphics and speed for the Amstrad. It did a stellar job of filling the void left when Hang On (the original) never made it to an 8bit computer.

No wasn't in relation to you. The Chase HQ reference .
Can't believe you consider Continental Circus a graphical mess?  It may not be the best graphics the Amstrad has produced , a variety of car colours would have made the game a lot better(I guess it was due to performance issues that same colour was used on all the cars?I don't know? Can anyone give us a possible reason?) I'm sure there are other little niggles like the tyre movement etc . But overall I personally find the games graphics charming and solid, but not spectacular . Nemesis has no finesse in all respects IMO of course.

[Shaun M. Neary]

No wasn't in relation to you. The Chase HQ reference .
Can't believe you consider Continental Circus a graphical mess?  It may not be the best graphics the Amstrad has produced , a variety of car colours would have made the game a lot better(I guess it was due to performance issues that same colour was used on all the cars?I don't know? Can anyone give us a possible reason?) I'm sure there are other little niggles like the tyre movement etc . But overall I personally find the games graphics charming and solid, but not spectacular . Nemesis has no finesse in all respects IMO of course.

Maybe I'm just being picky, but the colours were way too bright. And so much yellow! Compared to what Power Drift produced, Circus was a bit of a mess for me.
I got used to lack of tyre movement on a lot of racers, it didn't bother me after a while.

Nemesis' graphics were nice for the time, but it was also very bare bones ish which kept the speed going in certain respects, but it did suffer it's occasional slowdown. But then, a lot of games suffered that fate too.

[chinnyhill10]

Nemesis' graphics were nice for the time, but it was also very bare bones ish which kept the speed going in certain respects, but it did suffer it's occasional slowdown. But then, a lot of games suffered that fate too.

Occasional? It's chronic and very noticeable slowdown. The only time it manages to be consistent is during the busier levels when there is so much on screen it runs slowly constantly.

[ivarf]

I prefer Green Beret and Nemesis over the sluggish overhyped Chase HQ. In my book Nemesis and Green Beret on the CPC are good games. We have had many worsen, included Chase HQ

I never wrote that about Chase HQ. Why the need to change what I post? I feel Chase HQ has sluggish controls and is far from the best racer the CPC has seen. It is often shown off as something sacred, I disagree.

[ukmarkh]

Chase HQ overhyped? Green Beret good? Nemesis graphics nice? Continental Circus a mess?


I think somebody has spiked your tea! 


 

[TFM]