The Last Ninja Collection + Bonus Games Review (Switch)

Of all the collections we thought might make their way to the Switch, we didn’t have a Last Ninja collection at the top of our likelihood list. With the prevalence of C64 releases on the Evercade that seemed like a far more likely destination. We are however delighted to see one of the most iconic franchises of the 8-bit computer era find its way to a new audience.

One-time British powerhouse, System 3 has been pretty quiet for a long time. We had a Putty Squad release a long time ago and Constructor, but this is by far their most high-profile release for decades. Even then, it took a Kickstarter campaign to finally get the franchise over the line in some form. In terms of context of why a Ninja game was out on the C64, it can help to remember that the West was absolutely obsessed with Kung Fu and Eastern culture back in the 80’s, with martial arts movies prevalent at video rental shops.

What you get included here is The Last Ninja one, two and three and the Last Ninja Remix with the C64, Amiga and ZX Spectrum versions of the relevant titles. As well this Internation Karate and IK+ are added in as bonus games along with the easily forgettable Bangkok Knights.

There’s no hiding that anyone new to these games is going have a steep learning curve to go through. The games are difficult and the controls and isometric viewpoint will take some time to adjust to. The basic layout of all three games is similar. You explore a level, pick up weapons and key objects and then progress to the next. But you can leave key items behind and then find you can’t progress later such as the glove in the first game which is needed to pick up a poisoned rose later, or the shuriken’s in the second game.

There are also traps and puzzle elements to overcome and the river and swamp jumping sections were infuriating even in the 80’s. All that said, the first two games are stone cold classics and when it clicks, they still offer a unique experience. The Last Ninja 3 isn’t as strong sadly and the emphasis on almost constant combat makes things very frustrating.

Which brings us to the added quality of life features. Or lack of them. There is no rewind function which is the biggest shame as that would have really made these games accessible, and no way to implement any kind of cheat codes. There is a save function. But each game can only have one game saved and there is also no quick save and load option, meaning you have to quit and then reload when you want to load again. Why we couldn’t just have a load option in-game I don’t know. That said, the screen transition very quickly so we didn’t find it to be a major issue and we were loading a lot. It’s strange though as the Steam version seems to have one.

The other disappointment is the extras. It seems clear the museum text is pretty much all identical for each game with a few words (such as the platform) changed. That’s a real missed opportunity as getting a real insight into some of these titles would have been great.

We are somewhat surprised that IK+ doesn’t get a bigger billing on this collection as it was arguably as iconic as the Ninja games back in the day. Here you have three combatants on a single screen trying to score points to win a round of karate. As these are 8-bit computer games, controls are based around a one button joystick configuration. In this case, you hold a button then press a direction to break out different moves. It actually works really well, and no matter which version you are playing it’s a great high score chasing games.

We found that the Last Ninja games where best played in their C64 guise. This makes sense as this was originally the main platform for games. The ZX Spectrum version of Last Ninja 2 is also remarkably playable. We found the Amiga versions, although they look a lot better, to be far less playable. And if anything, the extra graphical detail made the environments more difficult to traverse and objects more difficult to find.

Overall, we are just really happy that this collection exists at all. These are games that really should be preserved with Last Ninja 1 and 2 and IK+ being among some of the most iconic games the British games industry has ever produced. Yes, there could be more here in terms of the quality of life and museum features, but we can hope for that in an update. We just hope that this gives System 3 some latitude to get other release out the door, we would love to see a Putty or James Pond Collection in the future also.

Overall 7/10

Wire Strippers, Beer and a Spectrum: Part 3

Written by Dan Gill

Wire Strippers, Beer and a Spectrum: Part 1

Wire Strippers, Beer and a Spectrum: Part 2

With the keyboard membrane replaced, I was all set to load up some games.  I hooked up the off-white Sanyo cassette recorder to the Speccy, put in the copy of 'The Hobbit' (which had clearly been lovingly recorded to a 15 minute Boots cassette some 30 odd years ago), typed LOAD “”, pressed ENTER, then PLAY.  Nothing. No screeching, no lines on the screen, not even a coloured border.  At this point I thought it must have been the volume on the cassette recorder.  Nope.  Perhaps the 'Format' switch on the player should be set to normal instead of data?  Nah.  Maybe it's the lead?  Not on your life.

After spending what seemed like an eternity fiddling around with both cassettes at my disposal and all the settings possible on the recorder, I managed to progress to a screen with a red border and nothing else.  Something was clearly not right, and I was hoping it was the cassettes.  With this in mind, I hit eBay again in order to procure an original cassette.  I spotted the original 'Dizzy' for £2 (as a 'Buy it Now'), and bought it.  Sadly this meant I would have to play the waiting game again, at least as far as running cassettes went.  I remember reading an article about running cassette based games using alternative methods, and figured this would be the best time to try them out.

In the article I read, the author had managed to load Speccy games using his iPod, on which Spectrum games were played as MP3s or WAV files.  This makes perfect sense when you think about it, as all the cassette recorder is doing is playing data to the computer as an audio file.  This then reads the code and spits a game out all over your telly. 

In order to convert the files I downloaded several programs.  The first was OTLA (http://code.google.com/p/otla/ ).  This program is great in the respect that it takes seconds to convert titles, will output to MP3 or WAV, and will even speed up the loading times, meaning most games are running within a few seconds (something that wouldn't have seemed possible to computer gamers back in the early 80s).  My first conversion was Matthew Smith's classic, 'Manic Miner' (available legally and for free – as are many others – from http://www.worldofspectrum.org/).  Once I'd copied the file to my phone and set the volume correctly, I was able to load the game almost instantly.  The black magic works!  Truly, we're living in a technological golden age. 

Now I knew how to convert files, I simply had to try some others.  I downloaded some more files (they're tiny, so I grabbed loads), and began to convert more.  The success rate wasn't the best, sadly.  Some titles loaded fine, others would get so far and return to the Speccy's boot screen, and some wouldn't even attempt to load.  As awesome as it is to load games instantly, I needed more compatibility.  I found some success in TZX2WAV (ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/tools/pc/TZX2WAV_02b.zip), which maintained the original loading times, and coped admirably in faithfully converting anything I could throw at it (everything played through the Spectrum too), but I felt that converting a file seemed an unnecessary process at this point, and started looking for a better alternative – something which would play the files in their original TAP or TZX format.

I found PlayTZX (ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/tools/pc/Playtzx-win32.zip) to work brilliantly.  It played TZX files perfectly by dragging them to the program's executable, then output straight from the headphone socket of my laptop and into my Spectrum.  Unfortunately I'm a little bit picky, and still felt the process could be streamlined even further.  I did what I should have done to begin with and checked on the Play Store on my phone, and the App Store on my iPad.

For my phone I found TeeZiX (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.rift.tzxdroid – Free) to to the job.  Just throw a load of TZX, TAP or ZIP Spectrum files onto your phone, play them through this and you're sorted.  Well, mostly.  I found that a few games just wouldn't load, but it was only a few.  If you're looking to play Spectrum tape files through your Android device, this is the way to go.  However, Speccy Tape for iOS (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/speccy-tape/id460743976?mt=8 – Free) is, in my opinion, the best way to play Spectrum tapes to your computer outside of having a working tape deck.  I shows you on your device what is loading in real time (you know, the screeching noises, lines on the screen and so forth) so you know what you should be seeing on the real Spectrum.  So far I've run into no problems loading games.  This is now my second weapon of choice for loading games, as will be explained.

While I was waiting for my copy of 'Dizzy' to arrive, I received a gift from my good friend “Muppet Man” Kev – a copy of futuristic sports game 'Xeno'.  I must admit it wasn't a game I'd even heard of before, but I was grateful for an actual, genuine game to run on my Spectrum from cassette.  Sadly, the copy of 'Xeno' pretty much confirmed that no audio was coming from the cassette recorder.  It looked like another purchase was required in order to get that authentic experience of loading tapes.

My copy of 'Dizzy' arrived a couple of days later (I tried to run it anyway – no luck), and decided to go looking locally for a replacement cassette recorder.  Living in Exeter's city centre is ideal, as there are a plethora of charity shops and pawn brokers to be found.  I nipped ten minutes down the road to the nearest charity shop to me (and on of the shops which sells electricals.  So may don't these days).  Amazingly they had one in stock for £10.  It was practically on my doorstep all along.  I promptly bought it and returned home, connected it up and (after more volume adjustment and waiting) had 'Dizzy' loaded.  My quest for a fully working ZX Spectrum 48k setup was finally complete.

So, after a week or so of rigorous eBay combing, component switching and general fannying about, I was able to create the authentic early 80s computer gaming experience I was after.  Even with the cost the new keyboard membrane and replacement cassette recorder I still feel I bagged a bargain, and am thoroughly happy with my new addition to the retro collection.  Now I just need to get a few more cassettes for this, and I can start on my next conquest – fixing up my Amiga.  But that's another story for another day.

Wire Strippers, Beer and a Spectrum: Part 2

Read Part 1 Here

Written by Dan Gill

The machine sat inside the polystyrene inner, and looked to be in very good condition.  The power supply was there too.  All good so far.  I'd already put the cassette recorder, tapes and detonator-like device to one side, and connected the Spectrum up to ensure it powered on.  Success!  I was greeted by the pale yellow screen awaiting my command.  I punched a few keys, and commands and characters appeared on screen.  I was feeling pretty good by this point.  It's not often you'll find a boxed, working ZX Spectrum for twenty quid.  I gathered together the other bits and pieces and wired it all up.

Having determined the mystery box as an all-in-one computer switch, PSU for the cassette recorder and audio lead container, I was now ready to load one of the tapes.  The two tapes were home copies of The Hobbit, Kong, Scrabble and Pimania.  I thought I'd fire up Kong first of all.  Having had to look up how to load Spectrum games (I never grew up with one), I was met with my first hurdle – the symbol key didn't work.  As any Spectrum owner will tell you, this is needed to input the LOAD “” command.  I tested all the keys and found several others were also out of action.  I opened up the computer to ensure the ribbon was secure (and had a look at the main board.  It was in surprisingly good condition for a machine almost as old as me).  It was fixed firmly.  Of all my concerns after ordering the computer, I'd never considered the keyboard would be the problem. 

After looking into the issue online it transpired that the keyboard membrane was the cause of the fault.  It seems this is a common fault of the rubber keyboard Spectrums.  Being that there was very little else I could do with the machine at this point, I began to search online for a membrane replacement.  Thankfully, I found a site dedicated to supporting various Spectrum models online (http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/index.html ) who actually stock replacement keyboard membranes.  I found their eBay shop and ordered a replacement (£10.49 including postage, if you're interested), and eagerly awaited delivery.

A couple of days later my replacement membrane arrived, and I immediately went to work.  I first had to soften the glue holding the metal faceplate on.  Being a techie type, I had the specific tool required for this job, an instrument so niche that one would rarely be seen in a toolbox.  I took the hair dryer and heated the plate for a few seconds.  I then prised the plate off (bending it a little in the process, unfortunately), opened the computer, removed the old membrane, replaced the new one, tested all the keys, and reassembled.  I now had a fully working ZX Spectrum and was ready to load up some games.  Sadly, while the Spectrum itself was working, the other equipment in the equation had other plans.

Wire Strippers, Beer and a Spectrum: Part 1

Written by Dan Gill

Christmas is great.  You get to eat your body weight in cheese and sweets, have the opportunity to drink from 9am without anyone batting an eyelid and you get to spend quality time doing the previous two things along with those closest to you.  You also get presents, usually socks, more sweets, socks, perhaps a book, maybe a bottle of booze and socks.  However, others prefer the money approach, a gift which is often seen as lazy, but is in fact a wonderful thing – a gift which can become almost anything just by being handed to a shop assistant in exchange for something you really want.  I was given money at Christmas, and it immediately began to burn a hole in my pocket.

Due to other life commitments and lack of expendable income, it had been some time since I'd purchased anything gaming related.  I realised that I'd played none of the big releases from the past year and wondered if maybe throwing a chunk of my money on something like Bioshock Infinite or GTA V would be the way to go, but then I started looking on eBay.  It may have been a long time since I'd bought a relatively new game, but it had been longer still since I'd purchased a gaming machine.  So the hunt began.

I was thinking of putting the money towards a new console, but that would involve waiting.  My impatience led me to start looking at retro machines.  My last retro purchase was probably my second Dreamcast several years ago, and with most of the main consoles now in my possession I felt it was time to go after a home computer, but which one?  My first computer was a Commodore 16 given to me at the age of four.  Tempting, but I felt that maybe I could go for something I wanted when I was younger.  I already have an Amiga (probably my favourite machine of all time), so that really only left a few contenders: the C64, Amstrad CPC464, ZX Spectrum and, as an outside possibility, the MSX.

For the next few days I waded through eBay listings, watching auctions to see what kind of price I would be expected to pay, doing some research on the machines and additional hardware required.  I eventually found a ZX Spectrum which had gained little interest.  There was one picture showing the little computer with a Sanyo cassette recorder and a couple of tapes.  The description was also sparse, stating that the machine was found in the attic and the seller wanted it gone.  There was no information on whether the unit was working, or if it was the 16k or 48k version so I sent a message.  The seller informed me that they hadn't tested it, but “for 99p it's worth a punt”.

A few days passed, and I'd pretty much decided not to bid as I thought that if I did I'd end up with a non-working space filler which served no purpose.  I did keep an eye on the auction, just out of interest, of course.  But as the auction approached its end, I did something totally out of character. I took a risk and placed a bid.  I won the Spectrum for £24, including postage.  I paid, then played the waiting game.

In the days to come I was beginning to regret my decision, not that £24 is a lot of money, more that I could have paid about £15 more for a machine which was confirmed as working.  Within a few days the package arrived, and with mixed trepidation and excitement I opened it.  I opened the first box, finding the cassette recorder, tapes, and a small blue box with a red button and several wires poking out.  I put these to one side and looked at the second box.  It was the original ZX Spectrum's box! What was even more satisfying was that it indicated it was the 48k version.  Already I began to feel that this could have been a steal at the price, but held celebration until the box was open.