Matt Chat 41: The History of Cinemaware with Bob Jacob

[najbjergpoulsen]

great game company miss them..enjoyed, defender of the crown, sinbad, sdi and of couse the great wings!!

[dougsha]

Wow! Bob Jacob talked about Defender of The Crown and avoided saying the name of the designer and art director, Kellyn Beeck. Kellyn also designed Rocket Ranger. Stay classy, Bob!

[tmservo]

Had every cinemaware game.. on the IIGS. But always respected the Amiga option as well ;)

[weaselfierce]

Rock on with the amiga. Still own one and use it almost daily :)

[FredDude27]

Pleh! I have NO sympathies for people who never heard of Cinemaware...I say burn them at the stake!

[andersdenkend]

Jim Sachs was (is?) THE man.

[vintagevideogamegeek]

So why was it bad for Cinemaware when NEC put out the Turbo Graphx?

[vintagevideogamegeek]

Chesty women FTW!!!

[TwelveFortySix]

I had a C64, but always wanted an Amiga. It was incredibly difficult to find a Commodore around her,e let alone an Amiga. Had to travel 45 miles north out of the hinterlands where I lived just to find a place that sold a few C64 titles...so I was lucky to have what I did.

Still, I loved Defender of the Crown. Was more into Ultima/SSI Goldbox games, but DofC was classic. Always came back to it.

[blacklily8]

Sounds about like me! I grew up in rural Louisiana, and the closest place to buy any computer stuff was about 45 minutes away in Monroe--not exactly a major city! Once Electronics Boutique stopped carrying it, we were screwed.

[Seabloon]

Hey, I would love to learn more about Jacob's relationship with NEC in North America (TurboGrafx-16) and Japan (PC Engine). It was my understanding that Cinemaware was in a dire financial situation and the deal with NEC was an attempt to stay afloat (in fact, I think some TG-16 projects were finished after Cinemaware closed its doors). I could be mistaken, of course. Thanks in advance for any clarification you can provide. Love your interviews, keep up the great work!

[blacklily8]

I don't think it was really "dire" so much as they saw it is a great opportunity. Unfortunately, Cinemaware bet "wrong" on the Amiga and got addled with another unpopular platform (TG-16) and that was what broke them. Bob regretted going with NEC, of course. They should have focused on DOS, Nintendo, or perhaps Sega at that point.

[Seabloon]

Indeed, I see your point. I must be confusing the timeline: I suppose Cinemaware was in decent health when they initially forged the NEC deal, but Cinemaware's health grew steadily worse moving forward. As an aside, I wonder if Cinemaware recouped their costs for TG-CD's "It Came From the Desert"--Reardon @ Cinemaware filmed FMV exclusive sequences for it. The money spent to record "Sea of Love", though, was worth it. I love that song. :)

[fuhrken]

I heard Cinemaware is coming back with new titles...

[HardWarUK]

Many say that Defender of the Crown was better on Commodore 64, with more options and gameplay features -0 making it better value for money... What's your view Matt?

[blacklily8]

I've heard that, too, and according to Bob it sold a lot better. Still, I prefer the Amiga version for its atmosphere.

[youkoose]

excellent video. well done. will be checking out more!

[HardWarUK]

Same here.......!

[RichardEllwood]

Matt, the quality of your videos only increases to impress me. Great interview with cut-screens intermixed. I played several Cinemaware titles back in those days, and I definitely appreciated how good they were. I particularly remember playing Rocket Ranger.

[laffer35]

Amazing video! This is really cool, thanks a lot!

Very interesting!

[PurePlombon]

I never had an Amiga, but I did became familiar of Cinemaware from all the NES ports of their games. "Defenders of the Crown" came over by Konami under their subsidiary banner, Ultra Games. "Rocket Ranger" was published by Kemco-Seika.

Activision released "The Three Stooges," but instead of the opening featuring "Defenders of the Crown," it contained a title screen from "Ghostbusters 2" (which Activision had the licensing rights to at the time).

[newcoleco]

I did own a Commodore Vic-20 and a Commodore 64 for a period over ten years, and I've tried once a Commodore Amiga, I think it was an Amiga 500... but it's the first time really I've heard of cinemaware.

At one point you did show Deluxe Paint. Well, I remember only the DOS version I did try. Filling with something else than a solid color was totally new, and the rotating color palette effect we can do with it was for me hours of fun.

[Konuvis]

Awesome review again Matt. Too bad it had to be cut short but I'm sure you'll surprise us in the future.

Personally I never really got into computers until I got a PC 486. I had an Amstrad but didn't use it much and then it burned in a fire.

Anyway gotta love Cinemaware.

[blacklily8]

Yes, I'll hopefully get a chance to use more of the footage in the future. We had a bad SKYPE connection and many parts were corrupted, but still some good content left.

[blade004]

Defender of the Crown was absolutely wonderful, but my favourite Cinemaware game would have been WINGS !! :)

Great video!!

[blacklily8]

I loved Wings as well. It's probably my favorite, too. Just so fun!

[blade004]

Glad to hear it was your favourite also :) I think what was great about was the different elements of game play that consisted of course as you know the Strafing sections, the overhead Bombing sections and then of course there was that wonderful pseudo 3D section that was just wonderful with his head turning towards the enemy :)

But what COMPLETELY drew me into the game was the story of your characters thoughts from day to day as he struggled through the War :)

Phenomenal game!

[blade004]

And you dead right! those for whom missed out on the Commodore Amiga, they REALLY REALLY REALLY missed out BIG TIME!!! I bought my first Amiga in 1990 and had owned a C64 prior to that like you also and YES the leap was mind blowing!

I actually came VERY close to buying an Atari ST at the time when a close friend bought an A500. So i went over to see it and the first game he loaded up was FA/18 Interceptor and then Unreal by Ubisoft!

My jaw hit the floor and i tripped over my tongue :)

[blade004]

And of course as you know, it was SCREW the Atari ST, its AMIGA for me all the way!!! I sold the A500 in late 1992 to buy an Amiga 1200, then upgraded that with a Blizzard 030@50 and 16meg simm in about 1996 and kept using my Amiga till 2000 for EVERYTHING!! .... Also ran a BBS for a while.

I guess i found it hard to let go of such an amazing machine and an even more incredible atmosphere that WAS the Amiga scene.

Great times :)

[e1doller]

nice one, ive just found this, id love it if you could do some more amiga reviews. i got linked to this through an amiga site. keep up the good work

[blacklily8]

Thanks! What site?

[e1doller]

a member of the lemon amiga forum pasted a link into the chat box one night.

[Snestastic]

Hands down my favourite Matt Chat so far, just awesome Matt :) I wish this had been a multi-part vid with more interview content it was excellent :) so cool that you were a Commodore kid as well, i started on my dads c64 the brown one and then my parents got me the new amiga looking c64 and then they got me an amiga 500 which just blew my mind :) also i used to bribe my art teacher with deluxe paint so that i didn't have to work and he let me play games instead lol

[blacklily8]

Thanks! Great story about Dpaint. The 10 minute limit is really a pain! I hope they will eventually let us make them as long as we want, since I don't like having to deal with separate parts.

[DrapskunstUlf]

Probably your best episode up to date.

Love the interview, very in-depth!

Keep it up!

[MaximumRD]

I discovered AMIGA going to the house of a friend of a friend. He had an A1000 with Commodore monitor, he displayed a game, I was impressed how it boot from floppy automatically then stereo sound intro and parallax scrolling background, I think it was Running Man game, I was blown away! Compared to anything at the time it was amazing..............

[blacklily8]

It's always one of those things you wonder about--if either Atari or Commodore had great management back then, what would have happened... :)

[lewa123456]

Too bad Amiga was so expensive back then. My parents bought C64 and when I was just a kid I played it. Played only few Cinemaware games though.

[blacklily8]

Yes, though the ST and Amigas were still much cheaper than Macs or even PC clones there for awhile. You couldn't beat the C-64 for raw bang for the buck, though.

[RetroComputerMuseum]

One of my favorite publishers, I loved Wings and Defender of the crown on the Amiga.

[sys2074]

I remember when friends and me all still had a C64 and the Amiga came out and we saw the graphics of Defender of the Crown and we all couldn't get our jaws back from the floor for three days! It was the state-of-the-art back then. Neat T-Shirt btw! ;)

[blacklily8]

Haha! Yes, it was truly remarkable.

[markvergeer]

Wow - you did it again!

Great interview, thanks to Bob for sharing his thoughts and experiences. Excellent Matt Chat mate! Just keep the name, it's catchy and whilst the other suggestions you made capture the content in the title a little more - having this cathy 'Matt Chat' title actually gives you the opportunity the be a little more free with the exact content!

[blacklily8]

That's a good point. I like to stay flexible!

[marcusmalone]

I remember being blown away by these games. I was a C64 owner and very jealous. They actually managed some rather faithful ports to the C64, though.

[blacklily8]

What's interesting is that the C64 versions have deeper gameplay. If you watch closely, you can see that the sword fighting is more complex on the C64 with more moves. The Amiga version was really more about the eyecandy! :)

[marcusmalone]

Wow. I didn't know that. Might check see if there's an old Zzap64 review on Lemon64 for Defender or Rocket Ranger. During this period they usually reviewed both the 64 and Amiga versions side-by-side. The reviewers - being such 64 die hards - would've been wrapped by such 8-bit special treatment.

[a3HeadedMonkey]

Thanks Matt. I love your Miggy reviews. Being A British 80's kid it's all I knew & was very successful here.

It must seem strange to you US guys that instead of the Sega vs Nintendo debate, I was actually involved in the Amiga vs SNES war with many friends.

Needless to say, I now have an Amiga & a SNES hooked up post 80's fanboy. :)

Other Amiga nuts need to visit Lemon Amiga :)

[blacklily8]

Ha. Yeah, I remember basically begging my friends here to get Amigas so we could swap games and such. But all they cared about was Genesis and NES/SNES. Bleh.

[reaven666]

Very nice episode, Im loving these interviews.

[gregbest90]

Great show as usual fam, good to see you're mixing it up constantly. Keep on gaming!!!!

[workablebiglips]

your right about the leap Matt. But it was an even bigger leap here in the uk because our c64's were mainly with a tape deck and not a disk drive (1541) so we were strangled even more. i went from 64 to an ST then amiga.........i loved my amiga.......

[blacklily8]

Wow, that would be a leap. We got rid of our tape drive and got a 1541 shortly after the C64, so I only got a taste of that era.

[stuartkerrigan]

As always an interesting show Matt!

[skateblind007]

Great job and getting the interview. It is sad to hear him talking about their demise. :( Interesting stuff though.

[blacklily8]

Hehe, yes, I try to pick them up when I find them in bargain bins. I read most of the series in high school, but it's been long enough that I've forgotten most of it. Do play the Wheel of Time MUD? It's a good one.

[MrAcrin1]

I also moved from the C64 to Amiga. I remember everyone's excitement at seeing those Amiga titles such as Defender of the Crown in the UK computer magazines. My brother and I spent lots of time playing Wings despite the relatively simple gameplay. Good fun.

[blacklily8]

Wings is probably my favorite overall. I loved the style and ambiance of that game so much! It really felt special.

[Lorfarius]

Great vid. Would have loved to hear more time from Bob about what happened to his company, his thoughts on NEC were cut short :( Any chance of a follow up?

[blacklily8]

Yes, I plan to work in more of the footage in future episodes. Thanks!

[workablebiglips]

thats the guy!

stop him!

there he goes!

escaping the hospital.........class

[blacklily8]

Hehe! I remember that. :)

[tgaskill]

Great stuff Matt! I also transitioned from C64 to Amiga, and boy I thought I owned the world. Great games that kept me from doing my homework (Defender of the Crown and Wings).  Bob hit it on the spot, Amiga at the time was way better than anything out there. And when you can show hot chesty computer babes", who would not want to own an Amiga?

[blacklily8]

LOL, yes, he showed me the first ad for DotC and there was quite a bit more chest in that. They toned it down quite a bit for the box.

[rowdyrob3d]

Great episode! I loved the "Amiga Love" espoused in the video, since I still have three of 'em! You couldn't have made the case for the Amiga any better!

As for the comments of wanting MORE, I totally agree! It seemed that Bob Jacob had so much more to say! It was totally fascinating!

Yet another major coup for Matt Chat! How are you going to top this???

[blacklily8]

Hehe, we'll see. I have to admit, I personally liked the effect of the rapid switch from Mario to Halo in this video.

[BackForwardPunch]

I agree with Dinky! I want to hear more as well! Maybe a special features is in order?

Great stuff, Matt!

[blacklily8]

Yes, one day I'm going to have to make a DVD of some sort and try to hock it. :P

[DlNKYDANA]

Great interview! I wanted to hear more. lol

[blacklily8]

I thought about doing another two-parter, but ran out of time. I still have the footage though and can use it later.

[DlNKYDANA]

That would be great. I really like these interviews.

[Konuvis]

I agree it ended and I wa slike "noooooooooooooo!!!!!" :P

[AxiomofDiscord]

Amiga I hardly knew you and NEC I miss you dearly ... along with missing Sega in the gaming hardware world.

But I let Nostalgia get into my eyes I guess at times because I can even be seen grieving over Atari lol.

Aberran

[blacklily8]

I know what you mean. I never had a TG16, but it's my understanding that it has some of the best shmups. Nothing wrong with a little nostalgia!

[AxiomofDiscord]

It was very Japanese in all the ways you can take that and very Arcade like in the games they made much like the stylings of Sega. I really loved those kind of games and now that such genre's are considered "dead" and "relics" I miss them dearly. I am a little ashamed of my Nintendo fanboyness that left me blind to just how good some of these systems where and even more importantly the games.

Aberran

[ianwilson1978]

Would have liked to hear from Bob on It came from the Desert but great video mate. They were responsible for many memories on the Amiga :-)

[ianwilson1978]

Cinemaware did some fantastic stuff- It Came from the Desert is a massive favourite of mine from my Amiga days. I'll enjoy watching this video!

[blacklily8]

It's also a favorite of mine! He did talk a little about it, saying that it was inspired by THEM! (Great, great movie btw if you like old films. I love it).

[ianwilson1978]

Cheers mate, I might try and hunt that down- love the older films! I found out yesterday that It came from the Desert was made for the Mega Drive but never got released. There's ROMS' about apparently, but I'm not a fan of emulation- could make an excuse! :-)

[Sipie007]

By the way what happened to the video quality?

[Reorte]

It sometimes seems to take a while for the decent quality versions to turn up - either that or it's a reaction to the Amiga loving :)

[Sipie007]

wow I love cinemaware! It Came From The Desert, Rocket Ranger loved them all. Thanks Matt another great video :o)

[blacklily8]

Thanks! Yeah, you have to wait a few hours after a video is posted before it clears up. Not sure why it does that, but it is a pain if you watch too early.