Retrograde Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]

• Report rights infringement
• published: 18 Nov 2014
• views: 1917

Developed by Apex Computer Products/Transmission Software and published by Thalamus in 1989. Foreword: It took YouTube 4 days to provide it but the 50 FPS stream is finally available!! Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u Everybody has a favourite C64 game and this just happens to be mine. 7 alien dictators are locked in a competition to capture as many planets in the solar system as possible and yours happens to be next on the list. As defender of the people of the planet Choom, your task is to take the fight to each of the dictator's home worlds and to destroy them. The story isn't great, but it doesn't have to be. For me, this was the best game that John and Steve Rolands produced (along with Rob Ellis). From the fantastic cover art by Oliver Frey to the game itself screams "premium" and that's often not something that you'd associate with an 8-bit home computer. The game is set across 7 different planets where the objective is to ultimately destroy the planet itself. To destroy the planet, you must locate and destroy enemies that carry a planet buster and to then take this to the shop located on the level and get it primed. Once primed, you must find the entrance to a subterranean bunker and descend to the very bottom and destroy the enemies located there. The catch is, the shop charges you money to arm the device. To earn money, the player must take the fight to the skies above the planet and to destroy and harvest the "ara" crystals that they drop. In turn, currency can be spent in the shop on purchasing new weapons, upgrades and priming the planet buster. The weapon upgrade system is the best part about the game and is brilliant. Your space suit has a number of hard-points that can be outfitted with weapons. Each weapon takes up a certain number of "points", so you have to plan exactly which weapons you want to take and the direction you want them to fire. Fortunately, it's possible to sell weapons you no longer require, but you get much less in return for selling weapons than they cost to buy. The power of the enemies increases across each of the 7 worlds and this forces you into upgrading your weapons to keep on top of things. In some ways, Retrograde captures the essence of what makes games such as Diablo with this constant requirement to kill, spend cash upgrading your arsenal just so you can kill even more efficiently. The game features a novel approach to player energy and lives. Damage depletes your health, but instead of dying when the bar runs out, the game simply decrements you life counter by 1 and refills your health. Fortunately, extra lives are earned every 20,000 points, and certain enemies will drop an over-shield that prevents you from taking damage until it is depleted. Technically, the game is nothing short of phenomenal. The game has fantastic graphics, super-smooth scrolling that never slows down, and many sprites on-screen at once. A special mention must go to Steve Rowlands, who wrote one of my favourite SID tunes in any C64 game ever. This track accompanies the fantastic loader screen at the start of the video and really deserves to be listened to with the volume turned up to 11. The only criticism I can level at the game came right at the end during the final boss fight where it requires the player to have a weapon equipped to fire diagonally up and to the left or right. It's impossible to kill the boss without this and I had to replay part of the final level just to make sure I had a weapon in the correct slot. As for the video itself, there are prolonged sections where I have to kills enemies to collect cash in order to upgrade my weapons. I decided not to cut out any of the footage; just skip through it if you find it long winded. Retrograde just as playable and enjoyable today as it was back then; a true classic!

Retrograde Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]

• Report rights infringement
• published: 18 Nov 2014
• views: 1917

Developed by Apex Computer Products/Transmission Software and published by Thalamus in 1989. Foreword: It took YouTube 4 days to provide it but the 50 FPS stream is finally available!! Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u Everybody has a favourite C64 game and this just happens to be mine. 7 alien dictators are locked in a competition to capture as many planets in the solar system as possible and yours happens to be next on the list. As defender of the people of the planet Choom, your task is to take the fight to each of the dictator's home worlds and to destroy them. The story isn't great, but it doesn't have to be. For me, this was the best game that John and Steve Rolands produced (along with Rob Ellis). From the fantastic cover art by Oliver Frey to the game itself screams "premium" and that's often not something that you'd associate with an 8-bit home computer. The game is set across 7 different planets where the objective is to ultimately destroy the planet itself. To destroy the planet, you must locate and destroy enemies that carry a planet buster and to then take this to the shop located on the level and get it primed. Once primed, you must find the entrance to a subterranean bunker and descend to the very bottom and destroy the enemies located there. The catch is, the shop charges you money to arm the device. To earn money, the player must take the fight to the skies above the planet and to destroy and harvest the "ara" crystals that they drop. In turn, currency can be spent in the shop on purchasing new weapons, upgrades and priming the planet buster. The weapon upgrade system is the best part about the game and is brilliant. Your space suit has a number of hard-points that can be outfitted with weapons. Each weapon takes up a certain number of "points", so you have to plan exactly which weapons you want to take and the direction you want them to fire. Fortunately, it's possible to sell weapons you no longer require, but you get much less in return for selling weapons than they cost to buy. The power of the enemies increases across each of the 7 worlds and this forces you into upgrading your weapons to keep on top of things. In some ways, Retrograde captures the essence of what makes games such as Diablo with this constant requirement to kill, spend cash upgrading your arsenal just so you can kill even more efficiently. The game features a novel approach to player energy and lives. Damage depletes your health, but instead of dying when the bar runs out, the game simply decrements you life counter by 1 and refills your health. Fortunately, extra lives are earned every 20,000 points, and certain enemies will drop an over-shield that prevents you from taking damage until it is depleted. Technically, the game is nothing short of phenomenal. The game has fantastic graphics, super-smooth scrolling that never slows down, and many sprites on-screen at once. A special mention must go to Steve Rowlands, who wrote one of my favourite SID tunes in any C64 game ever. This track accompanies the fantastic loader screen at the start of the video and really deserves to be listened to with the volume turned up to 11. The only criticism I can level at the game came right at the end during the final boss fight where it requires the player to have a weapon equipped to fire diagonally up and to the left or right. It's impossible to kill the boss without this and I had to replay part of the final level just to make sure I had a weapon in the correct slot. As for the video itself, there are prolonged sections where I have to kills enemies to collect cash in order to upgrade my weapons. I decided not to cut out any of the footage; just skip through it if you find it long winded. Retrograde just as playable and enjoyable today as it was back then; a true classic!

Retrograde Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]

• Report rights infringement
• published: 18 Nov 2014
• views: 1917

Developed by Apex Computer Products/Transmission Software and published by Thalamus in 1989. Foreword: It took YouTube 4 days to provide it but the 50 FPS stream is finally available!! Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u Everybody has a favourite C64 game and this just happens to be mine. 7 alien dictators are locked in a competition to capture as many planets in the solar system as possible and yours happens to be next on the list. As defender of the people of the planet Choom, your task is to take the fight to each of the dictator's home worlds and to destroy them. The story isn't great, but it doesn't have to be. For me, this was the best game that John and Steve Rolands produced (along with Rob Ellis). From the fantastic cover art by Oliver Frey to the game itself screams "premium" and that's often not something that you'd associate with an 8-bit home computer. The game is set across 7 different planets where the objective is to ultimately destroy the planet itself. To destroy the planet, you must locate and destroy enemies that carry a planet buster and to then take this to the shop located on the level and get it primed. Once primed, you must find the entrance to a subterranean bunker and descend to the very bottom and destroy the enemies located there. The catch is, the shop charges you money to arm the device. To earn money, the player must take the fight to the skies above the planet and to destroy and harvest the "ara" crystals that they drop. In turn, currency can be spent in the shop on purchasing new weapons, upgrades and priming the planet buster. The weapon upgrade system is the best part about the game and is brilliant. Your space suit has a number of hard-points that can be outfitted with weapons. Each weapon takes up a certain number of "points", so you have to plan exactly which weapons you want to take and the direction you want them to fire. Fortunately, it's possible to sell weapons you no longer require, but you get much less in return for selling weapons than they cost to buy. The power of the enemies increases across each of the 7 worlds and this forces you into upgrading your weapons to keep on top of things. In some ways, Retrograde captures the essence of what makes games such as Diablo with this constant requirement to kill, spend cash upgrading your arsenal just so you can kill even more efficiently. The game features a novel approach to player energy and lives. Damage depletes your health, but instead of dying when the bar runs out, the game simply decrements you life counter by 1 and refills your health. Fortunately, extra lives are earned every 20,000 points, and certain enemies will drop an over-shield that prevents you from taking damage until it is depleted. Technically, the game is nothing short of phenomenal. The game has fantastic graphics, super-smooth scrolling that never slows down, and many sprites on-screen at once. A special mention must go to Steve Rowlands, who wrote one of my favourite SID tunes in any C64 game ever. This track accompanies the fantastic loader screen at the start of the video and really deserves to be listened to with the volume turned up to 11. The only criticism I can level at the game came right at the end during the final boss fight where it requires the player to have a weapon equipped to fire diagonally up and to the left or right. It's impossible to kill the boss without this and I had to replay part of the final level just to make sure I had a weapon in the correct slot. As for the video itself, there are prolonged sections where I have to kills enemies to collect cash in order to upgrade my weapons. I decided not to cut out any of the footage; just skip through it if you find it long winded. Retrograde just as playable and enjoyable today as it was back then; a true classic!