It's a Knockout! (Ocean Software, 1986)

Amstrad CPC version programmed by D.J. Burt and A.J., with loading screen by Simon Butler.

Commodore 64 version programmed by Keith Purkiss, R.P.P. and D.A.W., with loading screen by Simon Butler and music by Fred Gray.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum programmed by Keith Purkiss, with sound by D.J. Burt and loading screen by Dawn Drake.

Cover artwork by Bob Wakelin.

Published by Ocean Software in 1986.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

I promised you some more Ocean awfulness after Knight Rider, didn't I? Don't get me wrong - I love old Ocean games, particularly the 1985-1989 period, but even they had their fair share of trash in their catalogue. Well, here's an old BBC gameshow made into a relatively unknown computer game, and it fits in well with Ocean's other miserable TV-licence games, although it's definitely a very different beast compared to Knight Rider, Miami Vice and Street Hawk. See, this is a multi-event sports game, if you can call it a sports game as such. If nothing else, it's good enough to add an entry under the letter 'I' in the archive, but I know some of you love badness just as much as I do, when you can laugh at it, so It's A Knockout! might just fit your bill.

Nero 2000 (Bio-Syntax Method Oy, 1987)

Designed by Taisto Orre and David Cumberworth
Programming by David Cumberworth and Timo Kokkonen
Graphics by Timo Kokkonen
Questions and music selection by Taisto Orre
Published originally for the Commodore 64 in 1987.

IBM-PC version written by Timo Kokkonen
MSX version written by David Cumberworth
Both published in 1988.

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INTRODUCTION & DESCRIPTION

Some pieces of Finnish gaming history have been rather harshly scattered around with little hope of ever having the chance to get known to people, but lately, great amounts of archaeological findings have come up in the Finnish MSX scene. One of perhaps the most important findings has been the long-lost MSX version of the most famous computerized Finnish quiz game of all time, Nero 2000. Also, not much more than two years ago, Skrolli magazine found out the people behind the game and the company Bio-Syntax Method, on which they wrote an article for their first issue in 2018. So, before I continue into the actual article, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made this comparison possible: Kasettilamerit, MP83, Tokamoka and NYYRIKKI , and whoever uploaded the DOS and MSX versions on the internet. It has been a long time in coming.

2,000,000 visits! / UPDATES strikes back!

That's right, you read it right - the not quite as magical line as the previous one of 1,000,000 visits line, has been broken at last, although I never anticipated it coming to this after my year's near-constant absence. Having crossed that line in the year 2020 (less than a week before June, apparently) seems even more of an odd coincidence, because last month's comparison entries pushed the number of actual content articles over 200 (not including updates, achievements and other news), so I guess that's cause for more celebration! Anyway, I didn't post this blog entry just for these celebrations - that was merely coincidental to a dust-gathered post of UPDATES to old comparisons and perhaps even some other entries on the blog, with new surfacings of information and new versions of games having been released, etcetera.

Agent X II: The Mad Prof's Back! (Mastertronic, 1987)

Developed by Software Creations.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions:
Programming by Steven Tatlock
Graphics by John Tatlock
Music by Tim Follin
Additional programming and graphics for the Amstrad CPC version by Mark Wilson.

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Jonathan French
Graphics by Andrew Threlfall
Music by Tim Follin

Published by Mastertronic in 1987.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

The unexpectedly formed Mastertronic trilogy for May ends with a game I used to love as a young gamer, and made me not only acknowledge the existence of a game music composer by the name of Timothy Follin, but also made me into a big fan of his work. But I grew up with the C64 version, and I have never actually even as much as tried out the other two versions of the game, so this shall be yet another learning experience. What I have learned already, is that the makers of the Spectrum-exclusive original Agent X game, the Tatlock brothers, are also largely responsible for the other two versions, so I'm expecting great differences here.

SPECIAL VIDEO: a n00b's look at Philips Videopac G7000 / Magnavox Odyssey²

Here's a little special presentation for you that I managed to build during the last three days. Before this week, I had never actually tried out an Odyssey² or its European version for real - only on emulators, and very limitedly so. Thanks to a friend of mine, who borrowed his composite-modified G7000 to me, and who is credited in the video, I finally got to experience this machine for real.

Apart from that, I would also like to remind you, to keep yourselves updated on my other videos, click on the Videos link at the top menu. New videos get dropped there about two or three times a month, but you can also subscribe to the FRGCB YouTube channel to keep yourselves up to date. Thanks for watching.

Pinball Power (Mastertronic, 1989)

Written by Stephen Walters for the Commodore 64.

Converted for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Magdic Davor for Active Magic.

Converted for the Amstrad CPC by Bernardin Katic for Active Magic.

Published by Mastertronic through their Mastertronic Plus label in 1989.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

This month seems to have leaned towards Mastertronic games rather unexpectedly, even though the idea was just to write about two or three genres that haven't had much exposure at FRGCB. This time, I managed to dig up a suitable pinball game I hadn't really had much of experience with: Pinball Power, also known as 3-D Pinball, due to its title in the cover art.

180! (Mastertronic, 1986)

Developed by Binary Design (1001 Ltd.)
Atari XE/XL programming by David Forward
Commodore 64 programming by Andrew Routledge
ZX Spectrum and MSX programming by Garry Hughes
Graphics by Steve Pickford and Jeremy Nelson
Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum sounds by David Whittaker
Amstrad CPC and Atari XE/XL sounds by Jason C. Brooke

Amstrad CPC programmer hasn't been documented.
Neither has the sound programmer for the MSX version.

Published by Mastertronic Added Dimension in 1986, except the MSX version published in 1987.

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GAME STATUS

To my recent shocking discovery and horror, I noticed an utter lack of comparisons of games in the numeric part of the alphabet, so I decided to pick one that I knew well at least on one machine. To my surprise and delight, I found that this game, One Hundred and Eighty from Mastertronic, was released on all the 8-bit platforms that ever really mattered in these 8-bit wars. Not that I recall this particular game ever being a huge part of that battle, but it's interesting to find 180! is one of the few that was released on C64, Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad and the Atari computers.