Retro Let's Play: Bruce Lee (Datasoft 1984)

Retro Let's Play: Bruce Lee (Datasoft 1984)

Welcome to the OCAU retro game of the month, Bruce Lee!



Why?

Apart from the fact that this is how we roll in Retro... this game is basically imprinted on my brain. Even though I haven't played this since forever, I can still hear the sounds. I've been meaning to explore this game for some time, so thought I'd make this the game of the month.

I played this mainly on C64 and early PC's. FWIR the C64 version is better, however I will try a few versions now it's 2021.

History;

Bruce Lee was published by Datasoft and released in 1984 initially on Atari 8-bit, then Commodore 64 and Apple II. After that it was converted to the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC by US Gold. Also an MSX version in 1985 by Comptiq.

The game was in the top ten UK game charts in May 1985 and topped the Atari chart in July 1985. Acclaimed at the time and many years after as being a top game.

Cool old article here from 1988;



Concept;

The aim of the game is to reach and defeat the wizard in an underground lair to bring wealth and immortality. In each area you collect the lanterns and fight the Ninja and Sumo Yamo, who keep coming back for more. There are lots of hazards to avoid, walls of electrical charge and exploding items... great platform action.

How;

Datasoft is long gone... Myabandonware has a PC version and others can follow their noses for other versions.



Tips and tricks;
​

50 Landing on Ninja or on Yamo
75 Kick at Ninja or Yamo
100 Punch on Ninja or Yamo
125 Collecting lanterns
200 Victory over Ninja
450 Victory over Yamo
2000 Enter new room
3000 Victory over sorcerer

left = walk to the left
right = walk to the right
down = lie flat on the floor or climb downward
up = jump or climb upward
up + left = jump to the left
up + right = jump to the right
fire button while standing still = punch in the direction of sight
fire button while running = kick in the running direction

This is for the C64 version... Load the original program and type POKE 5472,99. Then start with RUN and you have unlimited lives.

Amstrad version and maybe C64, if you go to the far right of the screen with the big Yak statue, duck down next to the black bar and you'll end up about halfway through the game.

More covers;



Something to aim for... high score;





The game restarts again when you finish all 20 stages... then starts again but more difficult the 2nd time.

I hope everyone enjoys Bruce Lee for November.



JSmith​

 

Holy shit!!! 20 stages??? I think I managed about 3 way back then..
Excellent excuse to see if I can beat 3 stages.. I remember this well, though was never very good at it, and reminder me very much of Conan on the Apple 2.

 

You can play these right in your web browser!

Commodore 64:
https://archive.org/details/Bruce_Lee_1984_US_Gold

MS-DOS:
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Bruce_Lee_1987

Atari 8 bit:
https://archive.org/details/a8b_Bruce_Lee_1984_Datasoft_US_k_file

ZX Spectrum:
https://archive.org/details/zx_Bruce_Lee_1984_U.S._Gold

Apple IIe:
https://archive.org/details/a2_Bruce_Lee_1984_Datasoft_cr_Black_Bag

I'll definitely be trying them all out later in the week.

 

This game… I played so much of as a kid, and I was so terribly, terribly terrible at it. This is a great reason for me to revisit it. Nice work JSmithDTV

 

aw yeah, I played this game so much on my Atari 800XL an absolute cracker!

oh man, browser versions so good - i am freaked out that Bruce is yellow in the C64 version.

 

Ohhh I just got a 386 running which would be perfect for this!

 

Another great choice, JSmithDTV ! I love this game and used to play it a lot on my C64 back in the day. I got a copy of it in a bundle of pirated disks from a relative, and until the internet came a long it seemed like nobody else knew about this game save for a couple of neighbourhood friends I introduced to it. I recall that it took quite a bit of practice to become good at this game, and I also recall being able to finish it but I may have been using the infinite lives cheat to do that. I don't remember.

Naturally I'm inclined to replay the C64 version, but the original Atari version looks like it may be the best. Does anyone have opinions about which system version is best? I do like how the lanterns are yellow in the CPC version. They all seem to have subtle differences.

 

Cheers lads.

Here is some pics of the "datasette" tapes for C64 versions;

Yeah, maybe so based on the intro screenshots from the various releases;





JSmith

 

hutts24 I think all 8-bit game’s versions were slightly different in subtle ways. I remember Knight Games back in the day was better to play and had better music on my C64, but looked nicer on my brother’s CPC464. I think Operation Wolf was similar but played slightly better on the Amstrad.

 

C64 cassette instructions

 

Gosh that brings back memories… gatefold cassette inserts with colour instructions!

 

Agg, could this and the racing game of the month be added to "news" or on the main page? I find when you do that more people participate... racing thread was pretty quiet last month.


Cheers,
JSmith

 

You can email news to Agg:
https://www.overclockers.com.au/contact.php

I often do this mid-month to revive interest in threads as they get quiet after the first week of chatter.

But lately Agg's also gone and pimped these threads himself, as I feel he has a soft spot for the ol' retro gaming.

 

... and THAT'S what makes me happy to be here.

 

The web player is quite good actually, no need to use an emulator. I'm still crap but I realise now (I didn't as a kid) that timing is everything when fighting, especially the big green dudes - you have to hit first or you'll get done too.

 

For those not familiar, archive.org's in-browser emulators are executing on your local machine, and not streaming.

They use a technology called "Web Assembly", or "WASM". It allows native speed applications to run on your system, launched via your browser. There's no extra lag or even much of a difference in performance compared to running a .exe on your Windows machine.

https://webassembly.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebAssembly

The wrapper called "Emularity" is the bit you see on the landing page. It tells your browser to download the emulator and ROM / disk image into your system's RAM, and it's all executed from there, just presented out through your browser.

https://github.com/db48x/emularity/blob/master/README.md
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Emularity

WASM is being adopted by a whole lot of different application authors lately. The LibRetro/RetroArch team have put a lot of effort into porting stuff to WASM, and you can now do things like run fully accelerated emulators through a browser on your XBox, without the need to download and install anything. Try it out for yourself. You'll need to supply ROMs locally however, due to copyright. (Archive.org gets around this because they are a registered national library in the US, exempt from certain copyrights and protected by their local laws).

https://web.libretro.com/

But it all has huge application outside of games. I'm quite certain we'll see more and more applications being delivered through WASM as time goes on, as it's an excellent way to offer a broad service catalogue of applications without needing local installs, and will be a pretty powerful offering in an all-cloud world.

If you want to go full nerd and try this for yourself, I wrote a guide on how to compile and host it:
https://stickfreaks.com/sega-sc-3000/faq-emulator-in-a-web-browser

 

hopefully it doesn't end up like flash full of security holes - but i've not heard anything.

 

"Flash" was a proprietary product written by amateurs and dickheads. It's failure was predictable, and indeed predicted by many long before its inevitable death.

"WebAssembly" is an open standard, contributed to by numerous private vendors, open source groups and the general public alike. It's not an individual product, nor is it closed/proprietary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebAssembly
https://webassembly.org/

Do you know why open source fanatics bleat on about open source? Because of shit like Flash, that's why. It's not the "source" part that matters. It's the "open" part.

Insert Archer "Do you want ants? Because this is how you get ants!" meme here about using proprietary software on the Internet. Open source and open standards matter, and it matters more for a global platform like the Internet, as well as long term safe preservation of video games.

</rant>

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This month's game looks very cool, and I'm surprised so many people are familiar with it, as I was completely ignorant to it. I like that archive.org can document these like a "brick and mortar" library can with books. I hope one day Australia gets a similar institution.

 

I think it's because it was pretty huge on early 8 bit computers, at the time there was pretty much nothing like it out there.

Also Bruce Lee was pretty huge back then.