Feud by Bulldog (Mastertronic)

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PeteProdge
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Feud by Bulldog (Mastertronic)

Post by PeteProdge »

I've been digging into this absolute bargain from time to time, one of the most underrated games on the Spectrum, yet overlooked because of its £1.99 status. The graphics are very well defined and incredibly colourful. Colour clash is hard to come across...

Image

It's probably the most prolific title on Mastertronic's Bulldog imprint, created to showcase software with a very British feel. This is a fitting home for a game that seems to be set in a medieval English village, with plenty of spells and a few amusing touches. I may be shot down for blasphemy, but I feel this is like an Ultimate game released two or three years too late.

Feud is very easy to finish once you have a particular spell, it's almost like a cheat mode. There are only two ways to go - you either kill your evil brother Leonoric or he kills you. Quite possibly the first deathmatch game. I always feel cosy returning to it.

This is one of the games I want to be featured when I launch my retrogaming YouTube channel. As such, I've been venturing - for the first time - into other machines' versions. Which has meant sticking other emulators on...

Amstrad
I was worried because of the chunky mosaic on screen here. Not been a fan of the Commodore 64 and some Amstrad titles because of fat pixels. However, this is a delight to play here, because the map has been re-arranged very substantially. Leonoric is also much much tougher. His spells can inflict a lot more damage and Hieke's garden is far more of a challenge to venture into. To acquire a spell ingredient, you have to approach the plant from the 'south' and then push up. It doesn't temporarily disappear like you have on the Spectrum version. Also, the 'extras' - the farmers - are solid, they can really get in your way sometimes.

There's AY music all the way through this. It's not particularly medieval at all, tends to be influenced by electro/techno. The kind of thing you'd expect on a demo disk, rather than to depict a battle of wizards in a quaint village. Still, it's one of the things that could have been included on a 128K Spectrum version.

The CPC version plays to me almost like a sequel or spin-off, having only played it this week. I've still yet to win on it. I think I'll be returning until I conquer it.

MSX
As we know, a lot of the MSX's European games base is largely sourced from its Spectrum equivalent. This is no exception, and at first glance, this really does seem to be the Spectrum version, albeit with a few minor colour changes. You also get the Amstrad CPC's AY music playing all the way through, so is this the best of both worlds?

No.

There are two flaws. Firstly, the speed is substantially slower than the Speccy. Secondly, the gameplay doesn't allow for that quick diagonal walking that we Spectrum users are used to.

The map appears to be almost identical to the Spectrum, however, acquiring spell ingredients is the same method we see on the Amstrad - you gain them by 'pushing up'.

I think I could do well to win here, but it's a case of setting the blueMSX emulator to a speed of about 150% to make it feel like the game I know.

Commodore 64
At time of writing, I've not played this version, and according to Feud's game designers, I'm really not missing much. It seems to have been heavily botched by a carefree programmer.

Atari 800/XL/XE
Again, I've yet to try this version.

Summary

I feel Feud is easily full price quality, but in 1987, with arcade and movie tie-ins being heavily prolific, it wouldn't have done well with a £7.95 price tag. As much as I respect Ocean and US Gold, they tended to push genuinely original and highly creative games out of the market.

Do give this game a go if you've never tried it. The gameplay and concept is fairly simple, yet I've not been able to shake off the addiction for a few decades.
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ramsrc
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Re: Feud by Bulldog (Mastertronic)

Post by ramsrc »

It's a good one - and I have a story about how I came to buy it.

When it came out, I thought it looked good, and wanted to play it but for whatever reason couldn't buy it. So, against my better judgement borrowed it from a lad at school who I didn't get on particularly well with.

Having got home that Friday evening, it was nowhere to be found! I was in a bit of a state, because it was borrowed - but my Mum came to the rescue. She suggested that we go into town on Saturday morning, buy a copy from WHSmiths and if the copy that belonged to the lad at school turned up then I would have my own copy, and if it didn't then I could give my copy back to him.

Of course, come Monday morning, it turns out the rotten wotsit had taken it out of my bag at break time. He spent the day waving it around and declaring how funny that was.
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Dark
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Re: Feud by Bulldog (Mastertronic)

Post by Dark »

I had Feud, and have to admit I couldn’t get anywhere with it, no matter how many times I played it. Have been surprised when reading on the internet recently that one of its shortcomings was that it was too easy!

I’ll put it on my list of games to play when I get my Next, see if I can manage it this time.

I also had another game by Bulldog, Jackle and Wide, but I have no memory of how that other than the artwork, so I suspect I didn’t think much of it.
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Spud
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Re: Feud by Bulldog (Mastertronic)

Post by Spud »

The creepy dude in the herb garden in Feud used to scare the bejeezus out of me for some reason, but I'd love venturing in there to try and get as many ingredients from there as possible.

It is a great game (one of the best budget titles on the Speecy without a doubt) that I think would be greater still with a two player mode. Also some randomization of the locations would help its replay value and maybe some different map layouts.
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blucey
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Re: Feud by Bulldog (Mastertronic)

Post by blucey »

Pure graphics over gameplay for me. Yes the game was playable but only because it was so simple. The gameplay was flawed for me. Far too easy. Just one proper enemy who was basically toast if you got the three offensive spells.

Also, the controls were a problem. You held down the fire button to scroll through your book with left/right but it often caused me to spunk away a spell by accident.

There’s a much better game possible with that engine. Feud represents the least they could do.
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Alessandro
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Re: Feud by Bulldog (Mastertronic)

Post by Alessandro »

Ahhh, an old favorite of mine. For just £ 1.99, or Lit. 5000 if you lived here, Feud provided you with a nice maze/collect title, which unfortunately became too easy when you understood that just by collecting every spell ingredient whilst avoiding Leanoric and Hieke, the gardener, and then hitting Leanoric with everything you had got, the game went to a successful and quick end. But I still have a soft spot for this game, due to several pleasing afternoons I spent by playing it :)
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