Replaying the FIRST GAME I bought 40 YEARS later ⚠️ Warning: Nostalgic

Don't cry on YouTube! Hello chip dippers and welcome to Retro Recipes  as I emerge out of the blueness into the   ever-growing retro recipes kitchen and you may  have noticed that we are feeling rather festive   here today it is of course that time of year and  i hope that you're having very happy holidays   however you celebrate and it is invariably at this  time of year that thoughts sort of turn to family   and to home and it's been an interesting year  for me uh as some of you may know my mother   sadly passed away a few months ago and with my  father having passed away four years ago now   I've certainly been thinking a lot about how I  grew up and where I grew up and the computers that   now surround me that I grew up with in that house.  You might have actually seen the recent video I  did called the places our computers lived where  i recreated some of my childhood bedroom setups   using cgi. Computers including the Atari ST  that I owned and the Amstrad PCW that of course   my father owned in his home office. That does  remind me I should turn that off because I do get comments from people of a younger generation under  about 30 who say that it emits a high-pitched wine   they find rather unpleasant! I hope  that's better for you. But speaking of age,  as I think about computers like the Amiga 500 that  I had as a teenager and sold around 1994 I think   so quite recently then. Those memories are actually  quite vivid still quite fresh but as we go back in   time to computers like the Commodore 64 the Atari  400 and finally the good old Apple 2e which is the   first computer we ever bought, those memories  become almost primordial. I don't know if that   makes any sense but when i think back to them it's  almost as as though I'm accessing those memories   through a sort of hypnotic past life regression.  Hello do you remember what you were in a past life? I wasn't expecting that! But some of those early  memories include going to Simmons McGee Computers   back in Twickenham, West London buying these  magical things for the first time like this   Apple 2e joystick. I think the second game  we ever bought was 'Crush, Crumble and Chomp!'   The movie monster game, but I think the first game  we ever bought was Bandits and it was apparently   so important to me that I even wrote about it  in this essay called my hobbies when I was about   10, where I explained that you have to shoot down  attacking bandits who tried to steal your fruits!   It's not even a really very well known game, I  don't even remember much about it or if it's   any good. It's taken me years to actually find  a copy though but I have found one and I'd love   to invite you to stick around and join me for the  adventure of unlocking those memories as I replay   Bandits for the first time nearly 40 years. If  the disc actually works! Welcome to Retro Recipes! [Music Plays: Retro Recipe Title Music "Retromance"] ♪ All the things they said to me the gifts they gave under the Christmas Tree. ♪ ♪ Touch the past that's all you do, the nostalgia will come back to you. ♪ ♪ All the things you said to me, the gifts you gave under the Christmas Tree. ♪ ♪ Think of that you'll know what's true and the memories will come back to you. ♪ Oh yes here it is Bandits! And there is a bit  of a backstory to how I ended up getting this I   mentioned I've been looking for it for years and I  actually could only ever find this which this... this... disk. It just said demo version. It actually seemed  like there were more press pr marketing versions   of this floating around than were actually sold.  I don't know if that's true you might have a   different experience maybe to you bandits it's  very well known and very famous. However I did   finally find this copy on fleebay, here I am buying  it and oh two year protection plan it's very   generous for a 40 year old game I think I'll go  for that, and this is what arrived! Now this fruit   that you see on the cover is heart stoppingly nostalgic to me. Again I don't know if that makes   sense but those little memories of those little  fruits are so etched in the very back of my   lizard brain and memories that it is just  dumbfounding when you pull them out it's   almost like pulling a a tree out and other  things come out with the roots. Uh just the   little flashbacks and and unlocked memories. If you  have a similar experience I'd love to know what it   is for you that does that for you let me know in  the comments down there. Um but yeah let's take   a look at this it is made by Serious Software  and there is quite a serious story behind that! [Children Cheering] Sorry! But Serious Software actually went bust when  they owed 18 million dollars to I think it was   20th century fox for unpaid royalties so that was the end of Serious but before that they released  many many games including this one. And it says:  "Your job is simple enough just guard the supplies on the lunar supply base sounds easy huh well wake up and have some coffee partner!" Too American? "The name of this game is bandits remember surely you  don't think..." (I'm British again) " ...surely you don't think you're going to stand around and scare  off an occasional shoplifter?" No I do and don't call me Shirley! "You see every criminal in space is after your suppliers and each has a uniquely devious method of trying to get them." "The torrents..."  Apparently they predicted Bittorrent! "The torrents use napalm bombs to blow you away and then there are the carriers that will drag bouncing nuisance." Oh that's unlocked another memory nusants with a ts. "...on you in an effort to send you to an early retirement." "Your score by blasting these  greedy galactic pickpockets into cosmic dust." Oh, "You score blasting them into dust the more of them  you blast the higher your score but the quicker the bandits attack." "Get ready for some nuns dog..." [Record Scratch] Help if could talk properly! "...for some non-stop action written in assembly language..." Oh that's just the specifications! "Written in assembly language requires an Apple 2 or 2 Plus computer with  48k so this was probably released before the 2e was actually released so that's interesting that dates it to 1981, 2? "... nd one apple disk drive." [Tapping Sound] Luckily got one here. And it says here that it's compatible  with the Serious Joy Port. [John McEnroe ] "You cannot be serious !" I am going to be trying my Apple 2e joystick  called the Joystick 2e. I t looks like it belonged   to a school before I acquired it on fleabay as  well with a generous protection plan. Unlike the   Atari which is completely incompatible partly because  this is actually a analog joystick so it doesn't   just send up down left right it sends all  the coordinates kind of like the Commodore 64   paddle. And you can see on the back there these  little things you can adjust they uh change the   reach of the joystick so you can make it actually  only travel very slightly and the other ones   change or calibrate the actual coordinates that  we were talking about. We'll be trying that if not,   if it doesn't work, because I haven't tested it yet,  we'll be using keyboard. [Sped Up Speech] Or should I say fleabord! And here are some of those other games including  Spacex and Flywars! So they were known for doing uh   somewhat different games and it says here  that the joint port allows expansion of the   Apple game paddle port to support four Apple  paddles or two Atari type joysticks. Interesting!   You may be wondering why I 'm using this different  monitor having recently acquired one that was   more like the one I had as a kid, it broke it's now faulty. [Basil Fawlty] "I'm gonna give you a damn good trashing! So that would need a separate repair video. So I put the good old Commodore 1084s here because it has a green button which will make this simulate  the green display that my Apple monitor had.   I might look at it in color, but I want to  experience it in green as I did as a kiddie wink.   Also I must mention PCB Way! Who are sponsoring  this video and they make great quality pcbs   starting at just five bucks maybe you can make  your own serious joy port using one of their pcbs   because as we all know pcb stands for  Perifractic's Childhood Bandits, Doesn't it? "To begin boot the bandit's diskette in drive one  as normal." I'm gonna wait! "...bandits will default to   keyboard mode use space to fire left and right  arrow keys to move and s to activate shields."   Actually two or three of these little icons  here again give me heart palpitating nostalgia. [Sighs] Yeah that takes me back there. [Deep Inhale and Sigh] I can remember where I was  sitting in my dad's office at home   when I booted this up and I  remember learning, reading this   exact manual at the time and preparing myself for  the game because it's such an exciting thing when   you get the game for the first time when you  get your first game for the first time that   pure excitement of like this is, I'm an astronaut  this is my mission! "Bandits has 28 levels of play..."   Strap in guys! That's interesting: "The diskette when  booted will do a quick test of itself and your   Apple. This ensures the load of the game is exact  and it's going to test for drive alignment bad ram or bad diskette." Fingers crossed guys! "We've placed a duplicate of the game on the back side of the disc in case the front side is damaged."  That's very nice! If not we have that two year warranty. Enough talk huh let's get on with this!  Someone's written on here the keys, very handy! ♪ Fingers crossed! ♪ [Computer Beeps] ♪ [Disk Drive Whirring] ♪ [Sighs] [Computer Game Noises] I don't want to cry. Don't cry on YouTube! 1982, I remember that little truck thing ...some smoosh... smith.... [Laughing] I remember that  too the little thing eating the apple. ♪ [Game Sound Effects] I'm just going to watch this for a moment.  There's the carrier there's something   about the little shine dots on that that I  remember as well. Now it's loading from disk. I don't know that I even want to watch the  demo I'm just going to try playing I'm gonna   try with the keyboard first just in case  the joystick doesn't work, yeah there we go. Oh that mother ship gosh it's  a hell of a sprite isn't it. [Keyboard Clicking, Game Shooting Sounds] Don't remember the sound effect. That's how you die! You can double tap to keep moving. [Keyboard Clicking, Game Shooting Sounds] There's something about the fruits that made me  think of uh one-armed bandits as a kid I think   that may be why I was attracted to it, because  you know I'd always go to amusement arcades   with my mum and dad. My mum loved the little  one um where the coins hang over the edge. We'd always play that together. Even though it was a scam I know you're paying for the entertainment value. So let's try control p for joystick. Oh it's working! Is it working? Fine it's not working! That's a shame isn't it. That  would have been a lot easier [Keyboard and Joystick Clicking] Oh my shield forgot about that okay  we're going to abandon the joystick. A nd remember I can press s for shield. He stole my fruit! The reason I think it's apart from it being the first game I played the reason it's stuck in that is because it was weird. ♪ [Perifractic] You got a minute? -Uh yeah I've got some Thyme!  -Oh thought that was Oregano! -Oregano! -Oregaaano! -OrEGGano! [Perifractic] Do you remember what first video game  is that you ever bought? -It was probably Super Mario brothers the one with the duck hunt -Careful how you say that! [Perifractic] Do you like to hunt ducks? Good girl! Who's a good  little boy oh yeah! Good girl! [Sings Mario Theme] Beep Boop Boop bo Booop....De De De Boop Boop! Thank you for your time. -Thank you for your Thyme. - You're welcome!  -Here you have it I don't need any herbs. -Erbs! -Herbs! It's got a bloody h in it! -How dare you! [Punch!] It's time for a serious run now here we go [John McEnroe] You can't be serious man! Still can't believe the disc actually worked! [Keyboard Clicking and Game Sounds] Yeah! ♪ How dare you! ♪ How dare you take my tomatoes! ♪ Lost another tomato, tomaato! ♪ [Frantick Claking of Keys] Nice! They can't steal my tomaatoes Puppyfractic! Yeah! When they're getting away you  can still get the fruit back. ♪ Darnit! They were trying to steal my tomatoes  tomaatoes you're American dog sorry.   [Kissing] Aww she kissed me better! That's my Santa hat. ♪ It's like your toys isn't it! You can chew it yeah! Okay [Music Changes] You can't take my grapes! Come on you can do this! [Rapid Clacking of Keys] Okay we're getting the hang of this now! All five oranges, tomatoes whatever! Should we try and color? Let's try this color! Oooh! Okay I just upgraded all my nostalgic memories  to color. So they're blue what are they blueberries? Oh gosh! I remember this guy! [Laughing] Got away with my blueberry!  Oh this is more fun in color!   [Gasps] That... is... hugely nostalgic. But it's even more so if I put it green. Maybe I remember this guy because he's the highest  point score if you kill him it's 200 points.  Oh that little thing was the  menace not the nuisance same thing! Oh that's right they dropped their napalm! I don't want to die because  this is so nostalgic oh!   It's killing my nostalgia but in a weirdly good  way. See some things of this I have no memory of   and then other things are right like it's like  they're right there! I'm pulling them through   the front uh my eyes in effect and pulling  them out from the back. TMI really isn't it! T hat's why nostalgia is such an inexplicable thing  you just can't put your finger on it literally! Yeah! Yeah! Let's go back to color. [Whining and Clicking From Computer Game] Remember that clicking too. I think I would do that with my head You don't steal my oranges mate! [Sparking] Static There's the menace, phantom menace!   He's distracting me from my blueberries. Yeah these things in color... There's no way how do you  escape that this is impossible! [Yoda] That is why you fail! Now we actually tried to upgrade  to color we tried to upgrade our tv   to work with the Apple and uh that is the one  and only time I've been electrocuted badly. [Electricity Zap] 12 years old! Oh remember that day!  Needless to say it didn't work Four grapes! Interesting! Killing them before they come out! Could I have found a glitch or a hack here? Don't bounce all the way over here please?  Thank you! So if i get them while they're over   there and then I go over here, it can't bounce  far enough. So that's the little trick there. Can't hit shield! I had no shields. Bloody... carriers! [Computer Game Sounds] [Music: 'Retromance Instrumental'] Getting the hang of it! ♪ Getting the hang of it! Oh this! What is this? I've never seen this before! Oh they've got all my lemons! [Frantic Clacking of Keys] How dare they! Bombs! Geez! Good Game! Im out of shields! Damn! He didn't even get my lemon! Yes! No shields no chance! Oh gosh! No way! Damn! Yes! I think it's safe to say I am the best person  in the entire world playing this right now! What are those Eggplants? Aubergines? Oh man this game is laying it on thick! Menace and a snaky thing! And I'm dead! [Phew!] This is tough! I have no memory of how long I  played this for how many times I tried to play it!   Well 28 levels, I think we got to maybe  five! I'm gonna need a few days of this!   I think what I'll do is save you the excruciating pain of watching me continually die and I'll do a little update on social media and uh my Patreon, and the YouTube community if and when I  finish the game and I'll... I'll post that moment. How do I feel now that I've played bandits again ?  I love the fact that I was able to share  it with you guys because I know you guys   get nostalgia. I would much rather have shared  it with you than sitting alone in my bedroom or   museum or whatever it is just playing it on my  own. It's lovely to be able to express how you feel   about something so special that not many people  understand but in our little niche community   pretty much everyone understands.  They understand how that little truck tootling away like that is locked away in the  furthest reaches of my brain all thanks of   course to the hippocampus. I won't lie, I wanted to  love the game and it is a little frustrating it's   probably a bit too hard. If I was writing a review  for it today I would say that it's addictive   but frustratingly addictive. But it reminds me of  a piece of art I saw I've never been able to find   the photo of this piece of art but she had taken  a mold of like an old-fashioned light switch   and every single casting had a little uh  glitch in it like an air bubble or something.   She called it Nostalgia! What I took away from  that was no matter how much you tried to recreate   the good old days and bring them back  as if they were actually happening now   you can never quite create it the same.  But how wonderful thanks to you guys   that we get to at least talk about it and  do our best attempt at remoulding the past.   As always I want to thank you for watching  me replay this first game I ever bought. I kind of want to play it again now  but I'll let you go, thanks for watching.   Subscribe and support below and  cheerio! Alright just one more game! [Music Plays: Retro Recipe Title Music "Retromance"] Look at all my tomatoes! tomaatoes thank you Sirius

Channel: Retro Recipes

Views: 18,465

Keywords: Bandits, Sirius Software, Apple II, Apple IIe, Apple //e, gaming, retro gaming, apple 2, classic computers, apple 2e, retrocomputer, retro computing, dogs, vintage computers, review, Apple, retrospective, nostalgia, vintage, 8 bit, floppy disk, retro, 1980s, christmas, first game, video games, first video game, 8 bit christmas review, apple iie games, christmas music, gaming setup, apple iie color monitor, floppy disk drive, retro gaming asmr, vintage christmas, retrospective gaming

Id: b__bjy3ZJsg

Length: 25min 40sec (1540 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 18 2021