BBC Micro game Strykers Run

[JohnnyFavorite1970]

Good game for the Beeb ... but it really shows up how the Beeb excelled at drawing lines quickly (Elite, Thrust) but sort of sucked badly at scrolling bitmaps and sprites. Compared to the C64 and Atari 800, anyway. The C64 couldn't draw fast lines worth a damn though.

[Jagged85]

How many 8-bit video-game cover versions of YMO's "Rydeen" were there? So far, I've heard Super Locomotive by Sega, Daley Thompson's Decathlon for the C64, and Strykers Run for the BBC Micro. Even the "Mana Fortess" theme in Secret of Mana sounds a bit like Rydeen.

I'm not surprised though, since "Rydeen" sounds like it was almost made for video games. In fact, you can clearly hear some "Space Invaders" samples used in the original 1979 version of Rydeen.

[KaitainCPS]

Nasty sprite flicker there. Looks almost like a Spectrum game.

[honorabili]

Epic Yellow Magic Orchestra - Rydeen cover! ^_^

[craiglockwoodleeds]

I actually went out & bought this when it 1st came out back in the 1986. I thought it was the dogs bollocks back then but its kinda lost some of its appeal now lol. BBC's were fucking great though, c'mon you've gotta agree with me there! This game is nearly a quarter of a century old now

[walter0bz]

imagine if the BBC's palette was as big as the number of colors in its bitmap...

[Col6859]

I loved playing this on my Master128k. The graphics were limited then but the games play was just as good.

I still say the best game I ever played or was written, even with the games of today was Elite. I only played the BBC version of it :)

[dreamcastII]

goodness. This is an 'enhanced' version ? I had a BBC and it was king until 1985. Then the C64 took over with programmers pushing the graphics and sprites. I am rooting for the BBC but think the best programmers had gone to the c64 by 1986.

[ajhomryder]

Ok they even brought out another chip for the beeb to give the computer more colours!!! Loved this game the fact you could fly and shoot it was one of the best, Elite was always my fav though ;)

[xxxKINGFROGxxx]

YMO! YMO!

RYDEEN!

I LOVE THIS SONG!

[spntneous]

What an epic game! played this as I was a small 5 year old boy :) I loved those helicopters, and I found it so hard to get that far into the level. I always died :)

[Foxtricks]

Nice yellow magic orchestra rip off soundtrack

[GardenElvis]

I completed the 32k version of this game using save state on BeebEm, trust me its not a great ending just says codename victory...

[dctim]

Holy f***! I used to worship this game as a kid!

[gregmundo]

Shame you didn't get further in the game for this video. I'm sure there's a turret later on that I just couldn't get past. Gutted I didn't complete this game. Surely this is the thinking man's Halo?

[philbluntuk]

This game used to kick ass and seeing this video has brought it all flooding back! They REALLY don't do it like they used to. Looking at it, it's quite funny now, but I used to be obsessed with Strykers Run! LONG LIVE THE ELECTRON!

[Jimbobbil]

Did any other games besides this and Sega's Super Locomotive use Rydeen as the music? Sounds like it was a bit of a trend. Without YMO, who knows where video game music would've ended up today!

[Mayhemers]

Loading music for Daley Thompson's Decathlon on C64 (also done by Galway) used Rydeen too.

[jo0ls]

Chris was a neighbour and friend. He didn't have a Master, and borrowed my dads one to do the Master version.

My brother and Chris both started by writing BASIC games for magazines, and both swiftly moved on to assembly instead.

I think Chris' first magazine game was King Kong. You had to rescue people from the empire states building. Or were you the gorilla. I can't remember.

It wasn't long after this that Chris wrote Wing Commander for the PC.

[JayFirestorm]

Another Suprerior great. Althogh it wouldn't make my top 10 Acorn BBC games, it was still a good 'un. I got close to the end a couple of times, but never quite beat it.

[yaKC]

What an absolutely brilliant game, we used to play it at middle school, and I``d completely forgot about it :D Strykers Run, I`ll not forget the name again, hehe

Did the Master have a better/different sound chip to the Model B? I quite like the tune on this, pleased you left the tune in at the beggining :)

[cpmisalive]

No, the sound chip was the same, good old TI SN76489 (aaargh geek!) I think it was used in the Master System and Megadrive and two inside the Atari ST. The reason why the music is better is just down to available RAM. BBC has about 6KB left in MODE2, whereas the Master has over 90KB free RAM in MODE2, hence the improved graphics and sound.

[ojideagu]

@cpmisalive This sounds SO much better then the terrible sound I had from the BBC Micro speaker.

It was hilariously bad.

[zawtowers]

That's because the tune is by a certain Martin Galway - he did quite a few tunes on the Beeb, but of course he's much more fondly remembered for his soundtracks on the Commodore 64.

The title tune is a cover version of "Rydeen" by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Galway also did a C64 cover of the same tune, which was used for the loading music for "Daley Thompsons Decathlon".

And the high score music in this game was also written originally for the C64, one of the tunes in "Roland's Rat Race".

[Golden3ye]

i forgot all about this game.

i used to love this game.

[lou300]

This was one of my dad's favourite games on the BBC. He wasn't that good at it, but always said it should have been made into a film!

I only had the Standard version, but was always disconcerted that the enemies with the pistols looked like milkmen!

I always used to make Stryker duck when he was in front of one of his allies... hehehe! >:-) And the fact that they stopped made it worse!

[jackdaniels07]

Ah memories..

Games like this ...the Repton ones, the Grand Prix (where you designeda circuit as well) are brilliant

[Rumpio]

i think it's called Grand Prix Construction Set - great fun - now upload a video of Castle of Riddles ;)