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Why is Berzerk trapped in time?

B

bjork

Member
Not BERSERK. Berzerk, the old maze game with the talking robots.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_6egQbsn_C4

Why the hell has this gone virtually ignored in the last 20 years? No remakes, no XBLA/PSN/VC treatment, nothing. If I want to play the proper version with speech, my only option seems to be emulation, these days. I haven't seen a cabinet anywhere in... well, since before a lot of people here were even born, heh.

Come on, whoever owns the license! I'll dip multiple times on this! Put Berzerk and Frenzy together and I'll pay double!
 
Robotron 2084 was the ultimate remake. It had everything except random walls and voice.
<robotvoice>Coins detected in pocket</robotvoice> :lol :lol :lol
 
Berzerk freaking rocks.

There is no scarier enemy than the smiley face that comes out if you stay too long in one area. I seriously had nightmares about that thing as a kid.
 
bjork said:
Robotron is garbage, goddamn it. I'm not asking for fuckface robotron.
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You just went down a whole peg on my scale. A whole peg!!. Sure, Berzerk was good but Robotron was godly. It's probably among the 5 best arcade games ever.
Why not just play the org? It's a very good game, just play that and be happy. Things doesn't have to be remade to be worthy of your attention.
How would a remake add anything that wouldn't make it a completely different game?

BTW. Going Berzerk was the best song on Pacman Fever, and to my knowledge the only tune that wasn't swiped from someone else.
 
I'm guessing its a rights issue. Most of the arcade games on XBLA are from companies still in existance, or who were bought out by other gaming companies. Berzerk and Frenzy were from Stern, which went out of business in 1985.

Or it could be they are afraid the game might kill people. 2 people died playing Berzerk (from heart attacks) back in its heyday.
 
One of the groups in my game design class are using Berzerk as the premise for their end of the year project. I'll pass a copy along to you after I grade it. :)
 
sp0rsk said:
Intruder alert
Intruder alert
Click to expand...
Stop the humanoid!
Stop the intruder!


When i used to see that smiley face thing, I would nearly piss myself. Proves you don't have to have ultra realistic graphics in a video game to instill fear in someone.
 
The Atari 5200 version was an excellent conversion, and even retains the speech!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8m4nBy7ayI

Berzerk on the 5200 was one of the first games on a home video game console to feature voice without requiring a separate voice module. RealSports Baseball was another game on the 5200 with digitized speech. (Intellivision and Odyssey 2 had several talking games, but you needed to purchase additional hardware such as this or this.)

A few years ago, Mike Mika devised a hack of the 2600 version which included voice, as well as some other minor improvements. Click here for more information.
 
Squeak said:
Why not just play the org? It's a very good game, just play that and be happy. Things doesn't have to be remade to be worthy of your attention.
How would a remake add anything that wouldn't make it a completely different game?
Click to expand...

Okay, fine. I'll settle for the original. But I want it on something other than mame. So now what?
 
Berzerk rules! Evil Otto is the man! He's like all :D , and then kills you!

Also if we're bringing back games from the way-back machine...can I get some love for Yar's Revenge?
 
That game looked great. I can only imagine how amazed I would have been to have played it when it came out. But, what's the deal with the freaky smiley face? That thing is terrifying.
 
Bezerk's place in history was set when Eugine Jarvis fell in love with the game, but hated how you could only shoot in the direction the avatar was facing. Coupled with a car crash that broke his right hand, that set in place the seeds of the dual-stick controls in Robotron. :D
 
JDSN said:
Great, now I want a Robotron remake. :(
Click to expand...

Already done...And it sucks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfX1HV4UlE

I'd recommend...

smas0001.png


Instead since it is Robotron's spiritual successor.

Bjork, what do you think about Frenzy?

frenzy_cabinet.jpg


For some reason I couldn't get into it as much myself.
 
"Chicken! Fight like a robot!"

I was 5 or six when I first saw, or rather heard Berzerk. It scared the crap out of me. I'd love to see it remade.
 
Ronabo said:
"Chicken! Fight like a robot!"

I was 5 or six when I first saw, or rather heard Berzerk. It scared the crap out of me. I'd love to see it remade.
Click to expand...

You should be scared, it has killed a man.

Berzerk shares a rather chilling distinction of being the first known game to be blamedfor an actual player's death. In January 1981, Jeff Dailey, a 19-year old Berzerk player, died of a massive heart attack right after playing his favorite game. His score was
16,660 (A very respectable score but disturbing for obvious reasons). On an equally
distressing note, in October 1982, 18-year old Peter Burkowski, a physically healthy
person who was alcohol-free and drug-free, inscribed his initials in Berzerk's top ten
list twice in a matter of only fifteen minutes. A few seconds after that, he collapsed
and died of a heart attack as well.
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Don't mock Berzerk you ingrates. The game rules you.
 
Ronabo said:
Yeah I knew that. It made the news back then. My mom wouldn't let me play games for a bit.

:lol
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Another one of my favorite games is also guilty of murder...

118124217143.png
118124217139.jpg


I can't find a story link but supposedly some kid in Brazil was electrocuted while playing this awesome game.
 
Death Dealer said:
One my favorite 2600 titles. I never realized back then it was an arcade game ! Never saw one at Chuck E. Cheese.
Click to expand...

Arcade is obviously better with the kick ass voices and cleaner graphics but the 2600 version was pretty decent port all things considered.
 
For a period of time, I thought that Robotron was made by the same fellow who made Berzerk... but, I'm wrong. So much for my "Berzerk -> Robotron 2084 -> Smash TV" thing.
 
RyanDG said:
Bought.

I can't believe I didn't have this album - I only had Pac-Man fever on MP3.
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No to be a
Debbie%20Downer.jpg
but that's an inferior rerecording (due to problems with copyright). The original is far far better!
Download that instead and then send money to B&G directly.

Best song on the entire album. The only one where the tune wasn't stolen from someone else AFAIR.
 
Squeak said:
No to be a
Debbie%20Downer.jpg
but that's an inferior rerecording (due to problems with copyright). The original is far far better!
Download that instead and then send money to B&G directly.

Best song on the entire album. The only one where the tune wasn't stolen from someone else AFAIR.
Click to expand...

That was probably my fault...I was only trying to find a sample for it real quick, I didn't realize till after the fact that the Amazon disc was a recreation. That sucks.

Here is the official site for the OFFICIAL disc.

http://www.bucknergarcia.com/

It's worth grabbing, fun stuff. I had it on cassette as a kid and would listen to it all the time.

I have no clue WTF there is a recreation album for this...I've seen many of these horrible things on iTunes as well. Damn BS.
 
womp said:
That was probably my fault...I was only trying to find a sample for it real quick, I didn't realize till after the fact that the Amazon disc was a recreation. That sucks.

Here is the official site for the OFFICIAL disc.

http://www.bucknergarcia.com/

It's worth grabbing, fun stuff. I had it on cassette as a kid and would listen to it all the time.

I have no clue WTF there is a recreation album for this...I've seen many of these horrible things on iTunes as well. Damn BS.
Click to expand...

The one on Amazon is by Buckner & Garcia, just as the original was.

I think what he meant was that the CD released in 1999 was not the original material from 1982. Buckner & Garcia couldn't obtain the rights to release the original recordings, so they made new versions of the songs. This Wikipedia article has more information.
 
Agent X said:
The one on Amazon is by Buckner & Garcia, just as the original was.

I think what he meant was that the CD released in 1999 was not the original material from 1982. Buckner & Garcia couldn't obtain the rights to release the original recordings, so they made new versions of the songs. This Wikipedia article has more information.
Click to expand...

Ahh good to know...Thanks.
 
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