Let's take a look back at the original Golden Axe!

I apologize if this is not the correct sub-forum in which to place this. I don't generally post links to my videos here at Sega-16, but since this one features a Sega product, I figured that you guys might be interested.

http://youtu.be/5ygtpU9yPtk

Golden Axe is easily one of my all-time favorite games, and as soon as I got my supergun, I knew that this was one of the first PCBs that I needed to track down. It was one of the first Genesis games that I ever played, and is still certainly in my top 5 on that system.

Fun fact: In a tradition that started when I was 15 and continues to this day, in the inter-level bits that take place at your campsite, my best friend and I would always run over to the camp fire after picking up the last potion so that our characters were standing over the flame with their legs open. Puerile, yes. But you don't mess with tradition.

Another fun fact: That's my mom playing as Tyris Flare during the 2-player portion of the arcade PCB segment. She was in town visiting for the weekend.

Thanks for watching, and please subscribe if you haven't done so already!

Chris

Nice! I love Golden Axe and really enjoyed watching this. Thanks for sharing!

Hearing those screams...

Nice video! I did not know about the sega CD port, I really need to look more into that system one day.

Good video, didn't realize that alot of the design was actually based off of the Conan movies, or that there was a PC engine port, among some other details.

Mad props to your mom for participating.

I love the arcade version! The visuals, the music, the atmosphere - everything's perfect. Hey, what supergun do you use?

Great retrospective. Golden Axe has never been one of my personal favorites but I still respect it a lot.

Nice video Jibba! As a fellow Golden Axe aficionado I'm happy that this great series is getting some good exposure. I own almost the entire Golden Axe series of games for arcade and consoles.

BTW, it's good to know we share a passion for the same game. ;)

we should hack the graphics and make GA1 into a Conan game!

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys. I really appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by Orchid87

I love the arcade version! The visuals, the music, the atmosphere - everything's perfect. Hey, what supergun do you use?

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I have the MAK Strike v3 from Arcade Forge. For this video I also needed to use a Sega System 16 -> JAMMA adapter, which also came from Arcade Forge.

I always considered the SMS version like the achetype of what you mustn't do with 8-bits consoles : trying to copy 16 bits.

The game wasn't smooth to control, big sprites but ugly colors and flikering everywhere.
Altered Beast was much worse that said.

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Originally Posted by Cross

Nice video! I did not know about the sega CD port, I really need to look more into that system one day.

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I WISH it was a MEGA-CD port! Sadly it is nothing more than the MD version with the arcade music in CD form. They did not even use the arcade's famous death screams or any other character/enemy sample for that matter. The one and only arcade sample the MCD game has is the screams of the villagers. It is quite stupid have THAT sample swing as there is a whole 4 villagers in the MD version. If SoJ had put some effort in and re-made Golden Axe and some of the earlier big MD arcade conversions such as Space Harrier, After Burner II, Dai Makaimura, Forgotten Worlds (that was SUPPOSED to be a launch/early game) and Strider Hiryu, it would have been amazing!

One stage/area load on the MCD would have been bigger than the entire MDS version of all of those games except for Strider. The MD was made early on by its arcade convwrsions. I wish so much that the same thing transferred to the MCD.

MCD rant #789,658 over, I will say that Golden Axe was one of my absolute fav arcade games from the moment I first set eyes on it. Revenge of Death Adder was the same. I kept hoping and hoping there would be a MCD version and later on, a Saturn or 32X version, but SEGA broke my heart by not ever giving me a home version. Thank The Maker for emulators!!

Golden Axe was also the very first game I saw running on the MD. My jaw dropped! I had just played the arcade game so it amazed me how arcade perfect it seemed! Especially coming from the SMS! It was a friend at school that told me there was "a new SEGA system", that was Oct, 1990. I thought he was full of shit, I had only had my SMS for 2 months and stupidly thought it was a "new" system. But he was correct, I went to the shop after school (Sundory, in Phoenix Plaza, for those that may have grown up around Liverpool, NSW in the early 90's ^^; ) and there was Golden Axe running on this amazing new SEGA console. The next time I went there, they had Strider running and my jaw was well and trully dropped. I also saw Final Fight running on the SuFami and tried as hard as possible to not be impressed, lol!!! It was running in B&W. It's hard to believe now, that when I got my MD on 18 June, 1991, it was already almost 3 years old!

Why in the hell dumbarse SEGA never made a proper complete GA (and Shinobi!) SEGA AGES game on the PS2, I will never know. I suppose not having a ready made SYSTEM-32 emulator, unlike the SYSTEM-16, may have been a factor. Still no excuse for Shinobi!

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Originally Posted by tryphon

I always considered the SMS version like the achetype of what you mustn't do with 8-bits consoles : trying to copy 16 bits.

The game wasn't smooth to control, big sprites but ugly colors and flikering everywhere.
Altered Beast was much worse that said.

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Indeed. At least they eventually learned their lesson and were more reasonable with Sonic.

Arcade Boss music has that little cute solo at 0:40


That is not in the Genesis version


MUSIC=RUINED

Jibbajaba, awesome retrospective and channel. I watched several of your videos last night and I really enjoyed them. Great stuff, man!
You're most active at neo-geo.com forums, right?

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Originally Posted by Barone

Jibbajaba, awesome retrospective and channel. I watched several of your videos last night and I really enjoyed them. Great stuff, man!
You're most active at neo-geo.com forums, right?

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Thanks!

No, not anymore. I haven't been on those forums for a couple of months now. I made a lot of friends but there was just too much negativity, and I was taking too much of a part in it. Kind of turned me into the worst version of myself, if that makes sense. Lately I've actually been most active on the various retrogaming-themed subreddits on Reddit. I'll probably start coming here more often though, as well.

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Originally Posted by Jibbajaba

Thanks!

No, not anymore. I haven't been on those forums for a couple of months now. I made a lot of friends but there was just too much negativity, and I was taking too much of a part in it. Kind of turned me into the worst version of myself, if that makes sense. Lately I've actually been most active on the various retrogaming-themed subreddits on Reddit. I'll probably start coming here more often though, as well.

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Yeah, sometimes I have to take a break from forums for a while.

I think most people here generally don't take the negativity personally though and while I might completely disagree with someone one day we'll be talking about how much we both love something else the next day.

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Originally Posted by Jibbajaba

Thanks!

No, not anymore. I haven't been on those forums for a couple of months now. I made a lot of friends but there was just too much negativity, and I was taking too much of a part in it. Kind of turned me into the worst version of myself, if that makes sense. Lately I've actually been most active on the various retrogaming-themed subreddits on Reddit. I'll probably start coming here more often though, as well.

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I'm glad you left that wretched hive of scum and villainy. There are so many good people there and plenty assets to the classic gaming community, but the good is overshadowed by the control freak moderators and closed-minded basement dwellers. Speak your mind in that place and you get villainized fast.

I really don't want to turn this into a thread about the Neo-Geo forums. I don't have any hard feelings or ill will towards anyone there. I left purely because I don't like what *I* was turning into there. I really don't want to create and maintain a negative online persona, and that's what was happening.

And I can respect that. You have my word that it will never be brought up again by me ever again. You are doing a great service with your channel and that's all that maters.

I'm quite glad that you went ahead and posted your video on the forums. You have a pretty good knack at presenting information and one of the reasons why I appreciate your reviews is the fact that provide your opinion only after you've spent sufficient time with a game. In my opinion, your reviews do nott come across as a "first impressions" type of video.

With respect to the video, even though I am a fan of the original Golden Axe, one thing that I never really considered was the strength difference between each character: Particularly between Tyris-Flare and Ax-Battler. I found that Tyris-Flare's agility and quickness makes her a more much balanced character compared to good ol Ax-Battler who I found slow and cumbersome. Now that I think about it, I should actually try and beat the game using the big oaf! :p

One last thing: If you enjoyed jibbajaba's videos, you should check out his short online reviews on his web site: http://www.cgquarterly.com/index.htm

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Originally Posted by SEGA.GENESIS1989

I'm quite glad that you went ahead and posted your video on the forums. You have a pretty good knack at presenting information and one of the reasons why I appreciate your reviews is the fact that provide your opinion only after you've spent sufficient time with a game. In my opinion, your reviews do nott come across as a "first impressions" type of video.

With respect to the video, even though I am a fan of the original Golden Axe, one thing that I never really considered was the strength difference between each character: Particularly between Tyris-Flare and Ax-Battler. I found that Tyris-Flare's agility and quickness makes her a more much balanced character compared to good ol Ax-Battler who I found slow and cumbersome. Now that I think about it, I should actually try and beat the game using the big oaf! :p

One last thing: If you enjoyed jibbajaba's videos, you should check out his short online reviews on his web site: http://www.cgquarterly.com/index.htm

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First of all, thank you so much for all of those positive comments. That's probably the most glowing thing I've ever read in reference to my videos/site. The site unfortunately looks pretty dated since it's 98% HTML, but I just don't know anything about designing CMS themes and I don't have the time to learn or the money to hire someone. And the site has really gone on the back burner since I started the YT channel. I had intended on writing short text reviews of all of the games that I feature on the show, since I can just use the script to write them, but honestly once I finish one episode, I start working on the next.

I don't remember much about my first time playing Golden Axe at that Round Table Pizza, but I do remember playing as Gilius. When my friend got the Genesis cart in 1992, I was always Gilius and he was always Ax Battler. Playing the game as anyone but Gilius feels very weird to me because I'm just not used to it. I agree that Tyris is a great character to play as, though. I think Ax is my least favorite, even though he is supposed to me the "main" character.

I suspected that was the case. As soon as I noticed that you were publishing video a bit more frequently, I would occasionally check your web site to see if you posted anything new. With respect to the web site layout, I don't think it matters all that much. What's more important is the content.

If you conducted a poll to see which character members' favored, Gilius would be the preferred character of choice. He has so many interesting move sets, my favourite being his rolling attack. It's also quite satisfying to run towards a character, jump and thrust the butt of your axe into your enemy's skull. The odd time I used Ax-Battler, he just seemed so weak in terms of attacks. One thing that I noted was hard it is to take out the skeletons compared to Tyris or Gilius. Using him, I tended to get sliced up quite nicely like a piece of ham. And if that was not bad enough, the knights are another obstacle that are difficult to take down using Ax Battler alone.

Awesome work Jibbajaba, I enjoyed it a lot since Golden Axe is a very nostalgic game for me as well. I remember skipping school to play the newly released arcade version back in '89, selling a bunch of Fighting Fantasy books to afford the credits to get my fix.

I had the Master System version and at the time I felt it was pretty good (although coming from the 7800, anything that wasn't a single screen arcade port from 1984 I thought was great). The MD port followed and that of course was my most played version of the game.

Admittedly, arcade wise Golden Axe had some stiff competition around that time. Friends and I were drawn to stuff like Turtles, Final Fight, Gang Wars (LOL I know), Ninja Combat etc.

Great videos! I just subscribed. And I'm glad you're going to stick around. :)

Golden Axe is pretty special to me as well. My brother and I bonded over it and other multiplayer arcade games like Double Dragon and Street Fighter (the first one). At home we only had access to the Master System port, so we had to take turns playing, trying to outdue each other.