1. ZX SPECTRUM Music: Only title, no in game music :( Graphics: Monochrome, small screen :( Gameplay: Too slow and too easy. From me: There could be the same music as on ST - a compatible sound chip. 2. COMMODORE 64 Music: In game, quite good :) Graphics: Colourful. Gameplay: Enemy shots are too fast, poorly visible :( From me: Very irritating when you get hit in a few microseconds as your plane appears. 3. PC DOS (released as Sky Shark) Music: In game, high quality :) Graphics: Very good, full colour. Gameplay: Good. From me: Colours of the ships are awful. 4. ATARI ST Music: Title and in game, very good :) Graphics: Excellent :D Gameplay: Excellent :D From me: The emulator encounters problems in full screen mode (not the game's fault) 5. AMIGA Music: Title and in game, high quality :D Graphics: Excellent (the same as on ST) :D Gameplay: Excellent :D From me: I want to play it again. See also part 2 (Amstrad CPC, Nintendo Nes, Arcade): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhaBtBgekWk I'm not a good gamer, rather a tester :P
Flying Shark/Sky Shark on 3 other platfoms:
Link to the first comparison
(ZX Spectrum, C64, PC DOS, Atari St, Amiga):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMbNT80HxWQ
Results:
AMSTRAD CPC:
Graphics: 4 colours mid-res, always better than 2 clrs on ZX
Sound: very poor music in the title, very simple sfx.
Gameplay: the slowest of all. Is it so slow on a real machine too?
From me: the colours are too bright, they could choose different ones
from the palette. When I set the emulator (Ape2.0) to 150% speed it becomes playable.
NINTENDO NES:
Graphics: full colour, extremely good as for an 8bit machine
Sound: this is Dr. Timothy Follin! The best of all versions.
Gameplay: seems to be good. I think there is an errror in the ROM, you can see the sprite clash in the moment when my plane was destroyed. Continue option available.
From me: I haven't caught it yet, besides the buttons "fire" and "bomb" in a joystick
are swapped and the emulator (JNes) doesn't respond when I want to change them.
ARCADE:
Graphics: Extremely realistic. Better than Amiga and ST in spite of lower resolution.
Sound: Very good.
Gameplay: The best of all, the vertical screen is much more friendly
for top-down scrolling shooters. Continue option, 3 difficulty levels, 3-5 lives available.
From me: I destroyed the boss but its bullet killed me in the same moment.
It should be qualified, without good weapon it's hard to pass the bunkers and the boss.
Anyway - one of the best arcade shooters made in the 80s if not the best one.
My ranking of all 8 platforms:
1. Arcade
2. Amiga
3. Atari ST
4. NES
5. PC DOS
6. C64
7. Spectrum
8. CPC (if it was faster it would be ex aequo 7th with Spectrum)
I'm looking for music from Arcade and NES version in .wav or original formats.