Xyphoe's Vids - [AMSTRAD CPC] Sly Spy : Secret Agent - Review & Longplay

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[AMSTRAD CPC] Sly Spy : Secret Agent - Review & Longplay
10 November 2010, 7:12 am

 

	[AMSTRAD CPC] Sly Spy : Secret Agent - Review & Longplay This blatant James Bond rip-off was released in the arcades as both "Sly Spy" and "Secret Agent" in 1989, this home conversion was released with both titles as "Sly Spy : Secret Agent". Lovely graphics, smooth scrolling and variety of levels is let down by the complete absence of in-game sound, some dodgy collision detection and a poor ending. The original game was pretty easy with short levels too, so don't blame the conversion entirely! This didn't get much distribution in the UK when originally released for some reason, however it appeared widespread on the Hit Squad budget re-release. There's some nice music on the title screen (if a little inappropriate for the game) by Geoff Follin (brother of Tim Follin?) cpc-power.com www.arcade-museum.com www.arcade-museum.com	From: Xyphoe Views: 0 0 ratings
Time: 14:58	More in Gaming

Source: Uploads by Xyphoe

[viddi]

Maybe, one day, we´ll see a patched 128k version with InGame music.

Anyway, I love Xyphoe´s YT videos. Thanks for that.

[Gryzor]

Hey, I didn't remember it looking that good! Gotta play it again!

Btw, if I'm not totally wrong, the arcade was not a Bond license. This is Tim Dalton on the cover, ain't him? And it calls you 007... wow

[Xyphoe]

Yea, its definitely modeled on Dalton (probably my favourite Bond actor) - and yup this is *definitely* not a Bond licence LOL!

Surprisingly lovely graphics ... just the total dead silence ruins it for me! Can't believe they didn't have few bytes left for some 'phut' and 'splat' sounds at least!!!


Viddi - thanks dude! If ya on YouTube send us a friend request and I'll add ya

[redbox]

Nice video again Xyphoe, I enjoy these.

The scrolling is interesting - it's obviously hardware scrolling but, if you look at the left and right of the screen, you'll see that the sprites appear on the right one (MODE 0) character out and on the left there is something similar when they scroll out of view.

I reckon the programmer had problems with the screen addressing when working with a rolled screen.  This is a bit of a shame as he'd done most of the hard work already and it scrolls very nicely... 

[arnoldemu]

Nice video again Xyphoe, I enjoy these.

The scrolling is interesting - it's obviously hardware scrolling but, if you look at the left and right of the screen, you'll see that the sprites appear on the right one (MODE 0) character out and on the left there is something similar when they scroll out of view.

I reckon the programmer had problems with the screen addressing when working with a rolled screen.  This is a bit of a shame as he'd done most of the hard work already and it scrolls very nicely... 

I confirm it's hardware scrolling. It uses page flipping too.

They did a nice job, shame about the sound.
My memory is playing tricks on me because I thought that once I did have a version that made *some* sound.
hmmm
I am suprised that the original Ocean release (tape) doesn't detect 128k and load music.

[Xyphoe]

It's worth mentioning too that the sprites move really nicely around the screen as well, even some of the larger enemies such as the tigers which has some nice animations.

Just wondering why more programmers weren't able to implement a smooth hardware scroll like this one (at the expense of sprite disruption/half disappearing when they enter the screen) ?

[viddi]

Viddi - thanks dude! If ya on YouTube send us a friend request and I'll add ya

Done. (AMIworx) 

[redbox]

Just wondering why more programmers weren't able to implement a smooth hardware scroll like this one (at the expense of sprite disruption/half disappearing when they enter the screen) ?

I wonder this too, but it is difficult to get right, mainly because of the 'wrap-around' effect of the RAM once hardware scrolled.

I thought on the right of this screen the background was being drawn in the first character space and the sprites were one character out to avoid clashing with this draw.  But if you look at 3:00 on the video you'll see the car appears like this but then it is flush with the right once it's fully drawn (and the background is still scrolling so the car must be being drawn every frame).  Also can't understand why the car is drawn one character width at a time whilst appearing rather than one pixel line - I can only assume it's due to the way the pixel data was stored (and why didn't the programmer change it?).

Weird but interesting!

[AMSDOS]

Correct - Oddjob was the Hat Throwing Villian from Goldfinger.

Nick Nack was the Midget in The Man With The Golden Gun, he was good at Throwing Wine Bottles! 

Haven't played Sly Spy personally, though the video scenes with  the Swimming & the Sharks looks so darn close to Thunderjaws too, wonder who ripped up whom there? Thunderjaws is perhaps equally as easy! 

I remember the Poster for this on the back of one of the AA Mags, the character pictured looks so much like Richard Johnson who did two James-Bondish like films in the late 60s - Deadlier than the Male & Some Girls Do in the UK for the Rank Films. James Bond while in it's own right started out in the early 60s with some really great films, some of the suspense from those films probably came from the Master of Suspense himself!