Kung Fu Master

[jdanddiet]

It's interesting the fact its a C64 conversion as the machines had different strengths so a bespoke version could have been good, as mr kung fu proves.

Anyhow, I'm speaking to David again this afternoon about another of his games, Tapper, which is somewhat better!

Cheers
Graeme

[p13z]

But back to Kung Fu Master, sure it's easy to play it now and see how bad it is compared to the arcade original, but I remember getting a decent amount of time out of it on the Spectrum when it was released.

TBH, I quite liked the game back in the day. Obviously not a contender for "arcade perfect" status, but it was playable, and OK for the Speccy - in context. The elephant in the room seems to be that the arcade game wasn't all that either - extremely simple and monotonous - largely carried by the novelty of Bruce Lee style combat samples. The coin-op gameplay was a bit too quick and frustrating too (frantically waggling stick while unable to attack) - obviously it is designed as a coin swallower. If I wanted to get really controversial here - I might point out that despite the discrepancies in style and fashionable acceptability, I kind of prefer the Speccy version to the arcade. I played it through to completion back then, and have never been arsed to get to the end on the arcade, or even in MAME with infinite coins available.
The Speccy version gets a terrible bashing in retro forums etc, but every time it comes up - there are always a few voices defending it - and it always seems to be the people who actually played it BITD.

[catmeows]

about another of his games, Tapper, which is somewhat better!

Cheers
Graeme

I have never played arcade but I remember that I have played Tapper on speccy a lot. It is nice conversion, IMHO.

[toot_toot]

It's interesting the fact its a C64 conversion as the machines had different strengths so a bespoke version could have been good, as mr kung fu proves.

Anyhow, I'm speaking to David again this afternoon about another of his games, Tapper, which is somewhat better!

Cheers
Graeme

Now tapper was a great conversion! Although I have to be honest, I prefer the hack without the music these days!

It would be interesting if he again converted it from the C64 version, instead of the arcade. If you’ve got time, you could ask if he was asked to do conversions of Congo Bongo and/or Up n Down, both advertised for the Speccy as part of the “Sega” range from US Gold, but never released.

[blucey]

But back to Kung Fu Master, sure it's easy to play it now and see how bad it is compared to the arcade original, but I remember getting a decent amount of time out of it on the Spectrum when it was released.

TBH, I quite liked the game back in the day. Obviously not a contender for "arcade perfect" status, but it was playable, and OK for the Speccy - in context. The elephant in the room seems to be that the arcade game wasn't all that either - extremely simple and monotonous - largely carried by the novelty of Bruce Lee style combat samples. The coin-op gameplay was a bit too quick and frustrating too (frantically waggling stick while unable to attack) - obviously it is designed as a coin swallower. If I wanted to get really controversial here - I might point out that despite the discrepancies in style and fashionable acceptability, I kind of prefer the Speccy version to the arcade. I played it through to completion back then, and have never been arsed to get to the end on the arcade, or even in MAME with infinite coins available.
The Speccy version gets a terrible bashing in retro forums etc, but every time it comes up - there are always a few voices defending it - and it always seems to be the people who actually played it BITD.

I respectfully disagree!

KFM was a game that I liked a lot in the arcades, even though I was terrible at it. I've seen people 'clock' it though, back then and more recently at events, so I don't think it's a real coin swallower. Not compared to other scrolling beat 'em ups like Final Fight. More recently I managed to get to level 4's boss (which surprised me as previously I'd only ever seen level 3 once).

The Speccy version was devastatingly bad to me when I got it. It was the first time that I really understood that games could be 'technically' bad. The way the music was clearly compromising the gameplay, the sludgy controls. I (well, my dad) bought it full price so I deffo played it BITD and I'm 100% sure it's worse than the coin op!

It's worse than the Amstrad version also.

[p13z]

I respectfully disagree!

I'm just throwing a bit of controversy in there, I don't expect many people would fully agree with my gaming tastes.
Just that this one always seems to be framed as if the coin op was the best thing ever, and the Speccy version was utterly unplayable -
where I see a weak to medium arcade game and a redeemable version on the Speccy.

I have very similar irritating views about Double Dragon.

[toot_toot]

Now tapper was a great conversion! Although I have to be honest, I prefer the hack without the music these days!

The what now?

There's a 128K Enhanced Hack with AY music - unfortunately not the original arcade music! However, the beeper music is disabled and if you play it in 48K mode, there's no in-game music at all. Which makes it much easier to play these days!

You can get the hack here: http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/y ... Cracks.php