The History of Vigilante - arcade console documentary

happy little games i've said it before and i'll say it again growing up during the golden age of arcades was a magical time it was the wild wild west of game development where no concept was off limits you had innovative titles that turned out to be true classics such as pac-man but then you also had titles that just didn't click such as the game gotcha this was a two-player maze game in which one player chases the other player trying to score the highest points by grabbing them instead of a traditional joystick players would grope a large pink plastic dome which is something i would replicate 20 years later out of all these concepts and ideas my favorite would have to be the beat em up genre there is nothing better than having two players side by side kicking the snot out of those dastardly villains and saving the day today we are going to talk about the game that came out in the late 1980s by the name of vigilante what arcade sequel did this initially start out life as so grab your nunchucks and get ready to fight because this is the history of vigilante the year is 1987 and arcade goers are enjoying the beat em up genre thanks to innovative titles such as double dragon this game took the country by storm but with great success comes many imitators the concept seems fairly simple your character walks to the left or right beats up a few bad guys and walks some more eventually you will face a boss and finally either rescue the girl or save the world one of the first massively successful beat-em-ups was kung fu master which was released by irem in 1984. it was created by takashi nishiyama and was inspired by martial arts films such as bruce lee's game of death and jackie chan's wheels on meals a couple of years later irim developed a sequel entitled beyond kung fu return of the master this got as far as location testing in japan but apparently it underperformed so they cancelled it rather than scrap the project entirely lead designer mr nishiyama decided to revamp it with a familiar american setting vigilante was released by irm in the arcades in 1998 and distributed by data east in the u.s as the story goes just outside of new york city your girlfriend madonna has been abducted and thrown into the back of a prison van by the nefarious skinheads it's up to you to take the law into your own hands become a vigilante and save the day this is a one player only action game so your buddies will have to stand aside while you lay the smackdown the game takes place across five levels with the mini boss at the end of each one similar to kung fu master the game scrolls on a single plane only this time with movement from left to right you have a punch button and a kick button with the kicks obviously having a longer range you do have a jump kick at your disposal but you have to time it just right otherwise you will leave yourself open for enemy attacks the enemies are absolutely relentless and they come bearing all kinds of weaponry including crowbars chains guns and knives occasionally you will come across nunchaku or nunchucks as they were called when i was growing up here in illinois these can be picked up and used as your primary weapon if you get hit while holding them they will disappear forever or at least until you find them again sometimes you will get attacked by a group of two or three guys who are apparently trying to hug you to death similar to the yeti in wcw you have to wiggle your joystick to knock them loose in between each stage is a short cut scene that expands upon the story the five stages in the game are mean streets junkyard showdown [Music] bridge of dragons back streets of fire and under construction [Music] the bosses for each stage are difficult at first but becomes much easier once you learn the patterns the last boss in particular is extremely difficult as he is twice your size and his health regenerates at a rapid pace something else you have to contend with is the time limit with each stage having only 99 seconds to complete sometimes it comes right down to the wire at the end of each stage after you defeat the fifth and final boss you rescue madonna and all this right with the world [Music] [Music] the game was ported to a number of home computers and released by us gold mostly in europe the home computer ports definitely needed a two button controller but unfortunately we were stuck with only one and it really hindered the gameplay across all versions the first one we are looking at is the good old commodore 64 version now everyone knows i have a soft spot in my heart for the system but then again that could just be the multiple stab wounds from my wife anyway everything feels just a bit off about this conversion while the sprites are large and fairly detailed the gameplay speed in particular the walking animation is very slow when compared to the arcade original most of the villainous baddies made it over although no more than two appear on screen at the same time the backgrounds look decent but the colors are extremely dull and muddy with everyone having a gray skin tone for example the animation is nice and smooth but it doesn't make up for the slow gameplay the music and sound effects are okay but after a few minutes it started to grate on my nerves other sacrifices were made such as the cut scenes having the graphics removed and the boss on the second stage instead of fighting two people you only fight one i grew up with the game on disc format but apparently it was a multi-load tape version in europe and it was extremely slow do next up is the spectrum version and it comes in two flavors you can try it in full blown monochrome mode or you can add a splash of color and i do mean just a splash there is a bit of color clash going on and personally i preferred playing the monochrome version the developers wanted to keep the speed of the game as close to the arcade original as possible so the animation is not quite as smooth this helps the overall speed of the game but the scrolling is still a bit choppy choppy there is no music and what we get in the sound effects department sounds like a queefing contest i witnessed down in old mexico short sweet and to the point this version also features the cut scenes in between each level it's actually one of the better conversions on the 8-bit line of computers but that's not really saying much sticking with the 8-bit line of computers is the amstrad version while the colors are nice and vibrant everything else is not the speed to the game is pretty consistent to the arcade original but the choppy scrolling is just terrible it gets even worse with more enemies on screen this was developed in conjunction with the spectrum port so a lot of the frills from that version made it over such as the cut scenes in between each level the controls are merely adequate due to the choppy scrolling and some questionable hit detection there is no music and one loud slapping sound for the fx let's take a look at the atari st version while everything is large and fairly detailed the game is quite a bit slower than the arcade game the scrolling and animation are also choppy making it hard to enjoy this conversion the music is not very good either but not as bad as in other conversions the dodgy hit detection rears its ugly head in this one as well now let's take a look at the amiga version which in my opinion is the best out of all the home computer ports the graphics are nice and detailed especially the backgrounds which are very close to the arcade game the gameplay speed is just a little off but it does feature some decent animation it also has some nice digitized sound effects straight from the arcade game and they sound great the controls are pretty good especially for only having one fire button we even have some nice parallax scrolling to top it off overall it's a pretty good computer conversion [Music] the sega master system version is really well done there were a few changes made including madonna being renamed maria and the skinheads now called the rogues first off let's talk about the controls we finally get two buttons and it really helps to replicate the arcade game experience the background detail is exceptional with everything from the arcade making it over including all of the cutscenes the gameplay speed is on par with the arcade version although the enemy animations are a tad bit choppy it features nice music but if you have a japanese or korean master system console it is compatible with the fm sound unit this sounds fantastic but i will let you be the judge [Music] a few questions have been raised whether or not the msx version is official or just a clone i put on my patman qc detective hat and here's what i found out it is official an official turd just look at those graphics the msx computer is capable of a whole lot more so i don't know what is going on here the animation looks like it was ripped from a 1950s soviet union cartoon the music is so bad i decided to stop playing for 20 minutes and go talk to my wife to get the ringing out of my ears but that only made it worse the controls are not very responsive either with sluggish movement and poor hit detection there are also only three levels other than all these issues a plus and finally let's take a look at the creme de la creme which is the pc engine version this is very close to being arcade perfect with large detailed sprites and excellent animation everything from the arcade game is here although the cutscenes are just slightly different the sound effects and music are excellent which complements an already great package the controls are nice and tight with two buttons at your disposal and it feels just like the arcade game [Music] the game was released as part of irm's arcade hits collection back in 2011 for windows this is a collection of 18 arcade titles including kung fu master these are all running under emulation so you get the actual arcade experience at home it was also released for the wii virtual console in 2017. there is a fantastic remake on the pc which features excellent graphics and animation but the sound effects and music have been upgraded considerably you also have 5 weapons to use this time around instead of just one the gameplay has been polished up a bit as well but it still feels exactly like the arcade game there you have it folks the history of vigilante it didn't last very long here in the arcades but i always enjoyed it with my favorite home port being the amiga version this is an excellent beat em up which can be completed in just under 15 minutes short and sweet which is just the way i like them if you've never had a chance to try this game out make sure you do you'll be glad you did if you enjoyed this video or any of my content be sure to like share comment and subscribe also if you would like to support me on patreon please click the link below thank you all so much for watching you

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 23,688

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, IREM, Capcom, Cadillacs and dinosaurs, two player, co-op, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, kung fu master, Spartan X, martial arts, golden age

Id: 7fAIeFB6A0o

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 16 2021