The 8-Bit Wars: Xenon

[TL]

I havn't posted one of these for a while so here is a real classic: Xenon by The Bitmap Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfUTacTe0HI

[zapiy]

One of my favourite games of all time.. Classic in every sense of the word.

[Rogue Trooper]

Only ever played the ST version (think it was part of in game pack), fiendishly hard and best mate and i used to squabble over the speech at start, i, in my youthful ignorance swore blind it said Get Ready 1!, where as he swore blind it was Sector 1.

Recal seeing the C64 version reviewed in Zzap64, but never in motion, as it were, seems to move at a fair pace, but lego-land type visuals, very impressed by Speccy version (words i seem to be saying lot more as i view more games on it), CPC seemed to struggle though, painfully slow.

Different teams write each version?.

[TL]

Different teams write each version?.

He seems to suggest that in the video

[Rogue Trooper]

Yeah, just wondering if someone had the def.answer, might do a bit of searching on the matter later.

[DreamcastRIP]

Had this first on the Speccy and then on the ST back in the day.

From the video the Amstrad CPC version looks dreadful but the C64 version looks reasonable enough. Despite occasional issues with not being able to see the 'bullets' too clearly in the Speccy version I'd say it looks the best of the 8-bit micro conversions of what was a majestic ST game.

[Havantgottaclue]

I've never played the C64 version, but it does look as though it's another example of how the vertically scrolling shooters failed to match up to the horizontal scrolling ones.

I have, however, played the Amstrad version. Like quite a few CPC games it looks fantastic in screenshots, but the frame rate is absolutely terrible, turning what should be a relatively fast-paced game into a slideshow.

[Tachi]

I liked Xenon and had it on the C64 and always remember it being one of the few games I owned which had horrible visible sprite boxes on bullets contrary to other games.
Always preferred Xenon 2 though which I originally had on Amiga but  I recently purchased on SMS....but god it's unplayable on that format

Off Topic, at 9:58 we see the boss ship, anyone recall a game on either C64 or Atari 800XL where your ship looked a bit like that, round with a shape in the middle to identify your facing?

[Rogue Trooper]

C+VG review scores for the Budget releases:

Speccy:Overall 83%
CPC Overall:81%
C64 Overall 52%.