Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Smash TV by Ocean/Probe Software for C64, loaded from tape
The first weird thing to notice about this, is it's an Ocean game from the 90s that does NOT use freeload - it's actually cyberload. So that's weird.
The second thing, is that probe really, really hated tape users - and this game is no exception to that, having an unskippable presentation load initially that is as long as the actual game load, to show a title screen and a scroll text. This is complete garbage, but probe loved doing things that way. I can only assume that, because they had a close relationship with the magazines, their games were mainly reviewed on disk, and so they got away with this in a way that, say, Rolling Ronny famously did not.
I didn't actually expect much because I have vauge memories of playing it on an emulator and not thinking it was great, and then seeing a battle of the ports episode that agreed with that assessment. Well, I was wrong - I actually had a blast playing this! And I love that it has multiple types of twin-stick options, which a lot of computer robotron style games from back then missed.
Sure, I wish it had in game music, but honestly? This was way more fun than I expected, and I can totally see now why it got 90%+ reviews at the time. It's just a shame about the 4.5 minute presentation load, since that means it's 8 minutes before you're playing the game, BUT at least it's a single load otherwise! (Which makes the presentation load even more inexcusable, mind you....)
Smash TV by Ocean/Probe Software for C64, loaded from tape
The first weird thing to notice about this, is it's an Ocean game from the 90s that does NOT use freeload - it's actually cyberload. So that's weird.
The second thing, is that probe really, really hated tape users - and this game is no exception to that, having an unskippable presentation load initially that is as long as the actual game load, to show a title screen and a scroll text. This is complete garbage, but probe loved doing things that way. I can only assume that, because they had a close relationship with the magazines, their games were mainly reviewed on disk, and so they got away with this in a way that, say, Rolling Ronny famously did not.
I didn't actually expect much because I have vauge memories of playing it on an emulator and not thinking it was great, and then seeing a battle of the ports episode that agreed with that assessment. Well, I was wrong - I actually had a blast playing this! And I love that it has multiple types of twin-stick options, which a lot of computer robotron style games from back then missed.
Sure, I wish it had in game music, but honestly? This was way more fun than I expected, and I can totally see now why it got 90%+ reviews at the time. It's just a shame about the 4.5 minute presentation load, since that means it's 8 minutes before you're playing the game, BUT at least it's a single load otherwise! (Which makes the presentation load even more inexcusable, mind you....)
