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Berzerk: why no reissue?

bjork

Member
This is like the best old game ever, but afaik it's never been rereleased.

Why?

CHICKEN FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT... that is gold!
 
I think there's only so much you can do with it, and what people would do with it - make it into a horseshit first-person shooter - would be kind of unfair to how amazing it was.

Lode Runner in flat-shaded first-person 3D, on the other hand, would be as awesome as a two-player co-op rail shooter Forgotten Worlds, and I shall continue to post both on forums across time until someone steals the ideas.
 
Remember the Buckner & Garcia song from the Pac-Man Fever album? It begin with light piano music, following by lasers and cries of "STOP THE HUMANIOD":

I think I'm going Bezerk.
I think I'm losing my mind.
Now, here comes Evil Otto,
Push the fire button in.
Something Something
Together, we can win!

So, yeah, why hasn't Berzerk or Frenzy been released in a legit comp yet?
 
Jumpman Jr. said:
So, yeah, why hasn't Berzerk or Frenzy been released in a legit comp yet?

I don't know, but it might have to do with obtaining the license from whoever it is that owns the rights to those games these days.

Berzerk and Frenzy were created by a company called Stern Electronics, which went out of business in the mid 1980s. There is currently a company called Stern Pinball, which is descended from the pinball side of the old Stern Electronics (it was sold to Data East, then to Sega, then to Gary Stern). I don't think they have the rights to Stern's old video games, but I could be wrong.
 
Agent X said:
I don't know, but it might have to do with obtaining the license from whoever it is that owns the rights to those games these days.
I was gonna say that. Nobody obvious owns the rights (Midway, Infogrames, and Namco being the main arcade compilation hawkers) and nobody's bothered buying them. I'd hope for Midway to do a "Best of 80s Arcade" compilation, as they're most likely to use Digital Eclipse.

But I have my Vectrex version of Berzerk, so I'm perfectly happy :)
 
jgkspsx said:
But I have my Vectrex version of Berzerk

HAY GUYS I HAVE HARDCORE CRED

...

What came first? Berzerk/Frenzy or Robotron? I always thought they were sequels, or related.
 
Baron said:
HAY GUYS I HAVE HARDCORE CRED
Bah, plenty of people here have one. They're inexpensive for what you get :P

And it kicks the 2600 version's ass but good.
What came first? Berzerk/Frenzy or Robotron? I always thought they were sequels, or related.
Berzerk came in '81, Frenzy and Robotron in '82. They're not related directly -- Robotron was a VidKidz (Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar) production, while Alan McNeil, a former pinball programmer at Stern, did Berzerk. Jarvis was inspired by Berzerk, though -- but he didn't like having to fire in the direction you were moving and he'd broken his right hand in an accident and wanted a low-strain control method for it :lol
 
Jumpman Jr. said:
Remember the Buckner & Garcia song from the Pac-Man Fever album? It begin with light piano music, following by lasers and cries of "STOP THE HUMANIOD":

I think I'm going Bezerk.
I think I'm losing my mind.
Now, here comes Evil Otto,
Push the fire button in.
Something Something
Together, we can win!

So, yeah, why hasn't Berzerk or Frenzy been released in a legit comp yet?
I, too, would love to see a Berzerk reissue. What a fantastic game. And for the record...

"Goin' Bezerk"
by Buckner & Garcia

I can move in eight directions, once I start I'm never done.
I can go from room to room, I can crawl or I can run.
I can wander through the maze, it's a wonderland at night.
I can stop and aim my gun when there's a robot in my sight.
I can wander through the maze, it's a wonderland at night.
I can stop and aim my gun when there's a robot in my sight.

Chorus:
I think I'm going berzerk, I think I'm losing my mind!
I'm getting lost in the shuffle, it happens everytime.
I think I'm going berzerk, would you like to come too?
I can't stop now - I'm addicted! I'm berzerk over you.

If we fight this thing together there's a chance that we might win,
Now here come Evil Otto, push the fire buttons in.
I'm sure he's crazy too because he's bouncing off the floor,
There's no way to destroy him let him bounce right out the door.
Now here comes Evil Otto, push the fire buttons in,
If we fight this thing together, there's a chance that we might win!

(Chorus)

Berzerk, berzerk, berzerk over you.
Berzerk, berzerk, berzerk over you.
Berzerk, berzerk, berzerk over you.
Berzerk, berzerk over you.

Berzerk, berzerk, berzerk over you.
Berzerk, berzerk, berzerk over you.
Berzerk, berzerk, berzerk over you.
Berzerk, berzerk over you.

(game sounds into fade...)
 
jgkspsx said:
But I have my Vectrex version of Berzerk, so I'm perfectly happy :)


Eep! That's one of the worst Vectrex games! I love Berzerk, but they blew the conversion of it on the Vectrex. i think the 2600 version is better! Vectrex Berzerk is one of the few videogames I have seen crash and cause the system to reboot-- and it did it often!

As long as we're talking Berzerk variants and descendants, K-Razy Shoot Out on the Atari 800 is one of the best. Very fast paced and hard, and one of the best original arcade-style computer games I have ever played.
 
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