Everyone who grew
up in the eighties remembers the video arcade.
For us, the children of the eighties, the video
arcade was Mecca. Anyone who remembers putting
quarters in Frogger,
Spy Hunter, and
Dragon's Lair
also recalls the feeling of knowing that once
you left, you would go home to an Atari 2600 or
a Nintendo and wish that you were back in the
arcade. Why? Because the graphics were better
and the sound was better, and that made the game
all the more fun. For all of you out there who
missed the eighties, it should interest you to
know that there was a period of time when the
home video game console paled in comparison to
the arcade. It was a time when the gaming industry's
main goal was to equal the quality of the arcade.
In those days, the golden years of the 8 bit game
console, the rift between the arcade and the home
system was extremely wide. Nowadays, many of us
have forgotten this as the arcade game and the
home system essentially run neck and neck as far
as graphics and quality.
Opening screen
of the Commodore 64 version. |
|
Back then, companies like Sega and
Nintendo developed countless arcade adaptations
for their consoles in an attempt to "bring
the arcade home". Admittedly, it was still
too early for these kinds of attempts, but they
did it anyway and almost every time, they produced
a highly disappointing and wholly inferior product.
Raise you hand if you remember any of the following
titles for the NES: Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game.
This title was depressingly poor in comparison
with the arcade game. Double
Dragon anyone? NES should have hid their
head in shame. How about Contra?
OK, OK, Contra
was good. But that was the only one. All right,
all right. Bionic Commando
was good too. Mostly though, inferior adaptations
like Spy Hunter,
Commando, Gauntlet,
and Ninja Gaiden
flooded the market as these companies fought to
bring the arcade to our television sets.
They even went so far as to attempt
resurrections of arcade classics. Most of these
older games, like Pac
Man and Donkey
Kong, fared better on the 8 bit systems
graphically, but they suffered at the other end
of the spectrum, lack of interest from the kids.
It would not be until the advent of the Sega Genesis
and the game Altered
Beast, that a company could equal an arcade
game, and even then it would still be a long time
before the consoles could consistently keep up.
One of the older arcade games that
found its way onto a myriad of consoles was Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom. There were
quite a number of adaptations made off of the
original Atari game. Some were made by Mindscape,
some were made by U.S. Gold. Some were designed
for the Commodore 64 while others found their
way onto the Apple II computer. All of them are
disappointing. All of them (with the exception
of the NES games, which are markedly different)
are flimsy adaptations of the original arcade
game. The game premise to these is exactly the
same as the arcade. Save the children, steal the
stones, and escape the Temple
of Doom.
The Sinclaire
ZX Spectrum 128 version. |
The biggest problem with these games
is the same problem that all other arcade adaptations
had back then. The graphics and sound are just
lousy and downright embarrassing. I am well aware
that systems back then did not have the power
they have today to render objects and blast us
with stereo sounds. I can forgive them on that
account, but this awareness does not override
the fact that graphics this bad and sound this
poor only succeed in making you yearn for the
arcade game all the more. I can guarantee you
that none of these conversions include the voices
from the arcade game, and the music adaptations
are also inferior. All of these games were released
around 1987 and 1988, at the same time as the
NES versions.
The version for the Sinclaire ZX
Spectrum 128 system (a rarely heard of game console
that runs off games on cassette tapes) made by
U.S. Gold is completely in black and white with
colored status menus bordering the monochromatic
playing screen. The graphics are as mentioned
before, very poor and rudimentary in comparison
to the arcade game. U.S. Gold put this exact same
game on the Amstrad CPC with an added bonus, two
colors for the game itself! Ladders and other
accents are a yucky brown, while Indy and the
Thuggees are a nice shade of
blue! Are you
feeling ill yet? Breathe into the bag, Indy fan!
The Commodore
64 version vs. the Amstrad CPC version. |
The version made for the Commodore
64 fared a little better on the color side and
had a superior title screen. The best of the bunch
is arguably the version for the IBM PC, which
looked the closest to the arcade. Not very close
by today's standards, but at the time it was the
best you could hope for outside of owning the
arcade console itself. There were also versions
made for the Apple II computer, the Atari ST,
and supposedly one for the Sega Master System.
If you are a person who has a goal to beat every
Indiana Jones game, I strongly encourage you to
consider these games cleared when you have finished
the arcade game. For Indiana Jones fans and gaming
enthusiasts alike, these versions will only succeed
in offending your sensibilities. Spare yourself
the agony and go play the original arcade game,
Infernal Machine,
Fate of
Atlantis, or even Desktop
Adventures! "I keep telling you! You
listen to me, you live longer!" (MF) |