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ROBOCOP (ocean) for DOS


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Hi All,

 

Spent ages trying to find the Ocean's own (NOT DATA EAST) port of ROBOCOP to DOS (1988). I've heard that it's a crap and was only released for CGA, still wanted to see it to believe it. Can't find anywhere on the Internet, the only one available is the Data East version from 1989.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Thanks a lot!

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Doing some further reading in to this, is this game developed by Data East originally, and re-worked by Ocean. This seems to be what Wiki suggests. Or was this version an entirely different version to Data Easts? Possibly released in the states under the Data East label, but in Euro regions as Ocean Software?

 

Also. The Amstrad version seems fairly easy to find. I am sure this is the one you mean as it is the UK release, Ocean is a UK company.

Check it out: http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=dsk&num=1815

Edited by knight76
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As I understand it Data East did the Arcade version but at the time Ocean Software had the license, so Data East had to sub license it from Ocean who then ended up porting it to PC. Perhaps the copyright info is a bit messed up because of this but I believe there is only one release.
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OK, to get to the bottom of it, I did some research (which wasn't easy, there is not much information on this game apart from Arcade and ZX Spectrum versions). This is the abridged history of ROBOCOP the video game.

 

Gary Bracey of Ocean read the script to ROBOCOP before the movie was made, loved it and snatched the license right away. He mentions it wasn't hard, as by 1987 the film companies are coming to Ocean with film license offers rather than Ocean fighting for the license with competitors. Japanese arcade manufacturer Data East wanted a piece of action also, but it was too late, so they had to sub-license their game from Ocean. So this is one of the rare occasions where you see an Ocean logo on the marquee of an arcade cabinet.

 

1987:

17 July 1987 - ROBOCOP hits cinemas in America. Video game is nowhere to be seen, but that was probably a good thing.

 

1988:

November 1988 - Data East arcade game appears in video arcades. Gary Bracey says that they had some creative input in the developing the arcade game with Data East. As the 8-bit version was developed in parallel, for home micro's they decided to include parts of the arcade game which worked best, and add their own bits. The arcade game was hard as nails!

November 1988 - Ocean releases it's ZX Spectrum version to much acclaim. It resembled the arcade game in a way, but was definitely not a direct port. The levels were a bit different, gone were the end-of-level bosses and the ability to jump. Nevertheless, it was awesome game.

November/December 1988 - Ocean releases Amstrad CPC version, which was nearly identical to Spectrum version, albeit with more colorful graphics.

 

1989:

This is where things get a bit murky.

1989 - MSX version released sometime in 1989 by Ocean, and is identical to the Spectrum version.

March 1989 - Ocean releases Commodore 64 version, which is again a version of Spectrum game.

early 1989 - Ocean publishes an Atari ST version, developed in house - this was the first direct coin-op port, with the same levels and bosses as in Arcade game.

August 1989 - the first console release with NES version of ROBOCOP, ported by Sakata SAS Co., and published by Data East. This was totally different game from both Arcade and ZX Spectrum versions.

late 1989 - TRS-80 CoCo version is ported by ZCT Systems and published by Tandy Corporation. This was port of the NES game.

October 1989 - Amiga version is published by Ocean and is nearly identical to Atari ST version.

November/December 1989 - Apple II version, developed by Ocean and published by Data East, again is a coin-op conversion.

November 1989 - Data East publishes developed in-house DOS version, which is a coin-op conversion.

See below the title screen and in-game screenshot from this version:

Robocop_PC_Data_East_Title_Screen.gif.6949340bb7853c499cf93108a9c5cff0.gifRobocop_PC_Data_East_InGame.gif.fcd30bf735b668788b4cc08bbca06fba.gif

Sometimes in 1989 - Ocean publishes it's own DOS version, ported by Astros Productions, and is a DOS port of ZX Spectrum version.

See below the title screen and in-game screenshot from this version:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41955[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]41956[/ATTACH]

As is clearly seen it has a different graphics and screen layout from the DataEast version.

The gameplay of this DOS game by Ocean can be seen on YouTube here (It's CGA version):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNyjEi1sOM

 

1990:

December 1990 - ROBOCOP makes it's sole handheld appearence on GameBoy, which was a port of NES game, developed and published by Ocean.

 

So that's it. PC was the platform that was given two distinct versions. So I just need to find the Astros Productions version somewhere.

Robocop_pc_title_screen.gif.467e88cfad7b3d2d3060b09af864b0be.gif

Robocop_pc_game_durng_1.gif.12a5f1d01f362d33d170fa6510064eee.gif

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Fair enough, when I quickly checked the other day when looking for info on this title I saw no mention of the other game but having seen that video it obviously does exist so will be interested to see if it turns up anywhere.
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Found a copy. PM me your e-mail and I will see what I can do.

 

Krumm just let me know the one I tht was it was not the one u wanted. I will check our nas and let u know. Sorry for the false hope.

Edited by mckie1
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  • 4 years later...

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