GameHammer Classic Gaming Reviews

ZoeKirkRobinson

Hey everyone,

I've been pushing out a lot more game reviews lately so I thought I'd mention my channel here 'cause some of you may like it. The Spectrum gets quite a bit of coverage, especially when it comes to the brilliant Dizzy series and similar.

https://www.youtube.com/user/nobmouse

The show's called GameHammer, and I like to go a bit further than just standard reviews by making the occasional short film about games, too. I did that recently with my review of Frank N Stein, a classic I loved as a kid.


Anyway, thanks for taking a look. Hope you like the videos (and if you don't, please feel free to say why 'cause I'm always looking to improve). :)

mik3d3nch

Different, original, might be better to stick to one or the other machine rather than flipping between them which is a bit confusing. The Spectrum version looks a lot better judging by this, I've never played it probably never will.

I went to your channel and took a look at the 'How to make a film' short which is definitely something I want to find out how to do since my computer can apparently do this and I'm not up for purchasing video equipment so will have to make do with what I have.

Keep up the good work, enjoyed exploring a different take on things.

ZoeKirkRobinson

Aww thank you. :D

slenkar

What kind of mic are you using and how far away from it were you?
It was a good review except the sound quality
and volume seemed off.

ZoeKirkRobinson

slenkar wrote: »

What kind of mic are you using and how far away from it were you?
It was a good review except the sound quality
and volume seemed off.

It's a professional level, stereo shotgun mic mounted to the camera. The sound problem came from the need to use a large room for the green screen, because I needed room to walk. The only room available at the time (the three Halloween specials were made at short notice) was not soundproofed, so there are all kinds of sound issues that I simply didn't have time to sort out.

The usual videos, the ones filmed in my game room, have better sound production because the room is soundproofed and echo-deadened.

slenkar

Oh ok Ill check out the other videos, thanks

ZoeKirkRobinson

No problem :)

ZoeKirkRobinson

So yesterday I uploaded a review of River Raid, including a look at the Spectrum version. I think we all know the Speccy can do a hell of a lot better than the jerky, tiny-character version that it got for this game. In addition, I'm wondering if this was a BASIC game sold as a full-price arcade port. Can anyone confirm or deny that? It really feels like it's in BASIC and the apparent use of redefined characters instead of sprites isn't helping that.

slenkar

the plane seems to move smoothly left and right which is more likely machine code, plus the vertical scrolling seems too good for basic.
Still not very optimised though.
Good overview of the different versions

ZoeKirkRobinson

slenkar wrote: »

the plane seems to move smoothly left and right which is more likely machine code, plus the vertical scrolling seems too good for basic.
Still not very optimised though.

It's the vertical scrolling that made me think it was BASIC the most, to be honest. I dunno, it just doesn't feel like machine code. Maybe it is just unoptimised. Doesn't feel right either way, which is a disappointment. The Spectrum could easily have handled a lovely version of River Raid.

slenkar wrote: »

Good overview of the different versions

Aww thanks. :)