Sunday, November 27, 2022

Ports of Entry: Titus Interactive

Unknown lead platform:

 

Crazy Cars

Released for Amiga, PC, & Thomston TO in 1987

Released for Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Macintosh, MSX, & ZX Spectrum in 1988


Credits and color depth of the platforms lead me to believe that the Amiga version is creator Eric Caen's original design, though I can't rule out the possibility of it being Amstrad CPC.

 

Crazy Cars II

First released for Amstrad CPC in 1988

Released for PC in August 1989 as F40 Pursuit Simulator

Released for Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, & ZX Spectrum in 1989


If Amiga is the original platform for Crazy Cars 1, then it would seem strange for Amstrad CPC to be the original platform for the sequel, even if that was the first release of it.

 

Fire and Forget

Released for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, PC, & ZX Spectrum in 1988

Released for Atari ST in 1989


Fire & Forget II

Released for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, PC & Sega Master System in 1990

Released for Atari ST in 1991

 

The Blues Brothers

Released for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, & PC in 1991

Ported to Commodore 64 in 1991

Released for Game Boy in June 1992

Released for NES in September 1992

 

Prehistorik

Released for Amstrad CPC and Atari ST in 1991

Ported to Amiga, CDTV, & PC in 1991

 

Amstrad CPC version credits Charles Goodwin, while the 16-bit conversions credit "Cybele" as the original designer.


Lagaf': Les Aventures de Moktar

Released for Amiga, Atari ST, & PC in 1991

Released for Amstrad CPC in 1992

 

Amstrad CPC version once again credits Charles Goodwin. The Amiga version has a higher color depth than Atari ST/PC (PC has enhanced colors in loading screens but only 16 in gameplay), and the PC version credits Éric Zmiro as an "IBM engineer" suggesting original Amiga design, though that version does have a version-specific credit for Carlo Perconti, rather than game designer Florent Moreau.

 

Titus the Fox: To Marrakech and Back

Released for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, & PC in 1992

Released for Gameboy in June 1993

 

This is a sprite-swapped version of Lagaf', and my notes regarding its credits and colors still apply.


Crazy Cars III

Released for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, & Atari ST in 1992

Ported to Commodore 64 & PC in in 1992

Released for SNES in 1993 as Lamborghini: American Challenge

 

Robocop

First released for PC in April 2003

Released for Xbox in September 2003

Released for PS2 in 2003

Released for Gamecube in March 2004


This game had a very weird development and release schedule, but the Wikipedia description makes it sound like it was mainly developed on PC, with Xbox portability made a major priority and PS2 compatibility less of one.

 

Select chronology:   

 
Title Lead platform Date Contemporary ports
Al*berthe Alice 32/90 1985
Crazy Cars ??? 1987 Too many to fit here
Crazy Cars II
(aka F40 Pursuit Simulator)
??? 1988 Too many to fit here
Fire & Forget ??? 1988 Same-year releases on Amiga, Amstrad CPC, PC, & ZX Spectrum
1989 release on Atari ST
Fire & Forget II ??? 1990 Too many to fit here
The Blues Brothers ??? 1991 Same-year releases on Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, & PC
Same-year port to C64
1992 releases on Gameboy & NES
Prehistorik ??? 1991 Same-year releases on Amstrad CPC & Atari ST
Same-year port to Amiga, CDTV, & PC
Lagaf': Les Aventures de Moktar
??? 1991 Same-year releases on Amiga, Atari ST, & PC
1992 release on Amstrad CPC
Titus the Fox: To Marrakech and
Back
??? 1992 Same-year releases on Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, & PC
1993 release on Gameboy
Crazy Cars III (aka Lamborghini:
American Challenge)
??? 1992 Same-year releases on Amiga, Amstrad CPC, & Atari ST
Same-year ports to C64 & PC
1993 release on SNES
Prehistorik 2 DOS 1993 Same-year port to Amstrad CPC
Superman Nintendo 64 5/29/1999
RoboCop ??? 2003 Same-year releases on PC, Xbox, & PS2
2004 release on Gamecube

2 comments:

  1. I feel like everyone I knew in France with a computer had a pirated copy of Prehistorik. It was a staple of French gaming.
    What you call "Lagaf'" should be called "Les Aventures de Moktar" or Lagaf':Les Aventures de Moktar". Lagaf' is the scene name of a TV Presenter who among other wrote a song called "La Zoubida" in which one of the characters is Moktar. One of the weirdest licence you can imagine.

    La Zoubida, and honestly Les Aventures de Moktar (including the Titus The Fox version) include some cultural depictions that have, well, aged.

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  2. The Secret of Monkey Island, Loom, Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max were also released for the Mac. (Day of the Tentacle supposedly contains the Maniac Mansion Easter egg, so I guess that was unofficially ported.)

    Some of the games were then ported to the Mac again, and at least some of those can be found on Steam. Which is a bit of a shame, because particularly the original ports of Last Crusade and (to a much lesser extent) Loom look quite different than their DOS counterparts, and I'd love it if someone who isn't me had them and could implement the missing features in ScummVM.

    Though at least the high-resolution in-game text seems to work fine now.

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