Four Play - The New Zealand Story - 8-bit Computer Comparison

In this episode of Four Play we compare the 8-bit home computer conversions of the classic Taito arcade game New Zealand Story. But which conversion is the best - Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 or Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K? You decide!

#zxspectrum #commodore64 #arcade

[thelairdslair]

My thoughts: Again, none of these versions are bad, but the quality isn't quite as high as the console ports that I covered last week. It might be a bit of personal bias here, but the winner for me is the ZX Spectrum 128K. I owned this version when I was a kid and absolutely loved it and still do (even if I am terrible at the game!). For me it has everything - it's fast, smooth, great controls, nice graphics (even if they are monochrome) and the music is amazing. Plus is has both music AND sound effects, unlike the C64, which I put in second place due to the muddy colours and higher difficulty, which results in some really unfair deaths. In third place I put the Spectrum 48K, which is exactly the same as the 128K version except it has no music (a big miss) and you have to load each level separately (very annoying). The Amstrad CPC finishes last despite looking the best, because the slow speed and extremely limited play area makes it a lot less fun to play. so my final ranking is Amstrad CPC > Spectrum 48K > Commodore 64 > Spectrum 128K

[ADink-bp]

Excellent choice colour that's why I chose the C64 over the ZX

[Kludgedean]

I thought the spectrum 128 was poor, but compared to the 48k, I guess there was a slight however against the C64 both are inferior!

Very good effort from the amstrad, but the C64 is the clear winner for me.

(I first saw and heard this back in the dat on the amiga 500 and was blown away compared to my Acorn BBC model B)

[Balasca]

I may be biased, but I would say the C64 version is the best in all aspects

[GCSoundArtifacts]

Well, after watching all the ports shown here of The New Zealand Story, I realized that I wish that the C64 could be my favorite version. Even its muddy color tone is better than the NES. SID chip does such marvelous recreation of the original music... Sad that we didn't listen the sound FX in here. However, it is the smoothest of all of them. It's clear that we don't see a difficulty curve being were developed, which a shame. It's a blessing that cheat codes exist...

As for Amstrad CPC, I think it's very decent graphically for the system in its rich colors, but at the stakes of its smoothness. It feels the choppiest. But the music and sound FX deserve serious compliment.

Both the ZX Spectrum versions deserve some acknowledgement. I can see that the graphical sacrifices were made for a good reason, background is missing sadly focusing more on its platforming aspects. Graphics are alright. I can see, though, the 48K moves smoother than the 128K, even though the last one has music and sound FX. This one is in disadvantage, though, in terms of sound quality: 128K sounds very high pitched and the sound FX cancel one of the channels.

I don't think my final judgement is the end, all the versions have their own advantages and disadvantages. But I can tell the ones that I enjoyed the most: C64 in 1st place, ZX Spectrum 128k the 2nd, Amstrad CPC the 3rd, ZX Spectrum 48k the last one.

[davidfernandezsabio]

IMO all ports are great considering the limitations of the 8 bit machines.Maybe the ZX Spectrum has more resolution when compared to the CPC and the C64 has neat graphics and SID sound which is better than the AY82 in the ZX/CPC also the hardware scroll is quite good compared with the software in the ZX/CPC.Keep the good work.Greetings from Spain.

[kenwheeler]

I've not tried any of these ports but they look interesting. Doesn't seem like the Speccy one give you a lot of time before the "hurry up" warning. Got to really keep it moving I guess.

[MangoPango]

Sadly you didn't include the SEGA Master System and the PC Engine versions to show what really was possible on 8bit.
But, as always, I appreciate the Amstrad version.

[mortimore]

The C64 has such a muddy colour palette.

[janwilt]

The C64 was much better than all the others except for the dull look to the screen. I’ve noticed on other C64 games . Not saying that it’s bad just kinda dull!

[KurtPedersen-tgjc]

The game slows down on Spectrum, lack of colours and a slow gameplay spoils everything. Calling this game "a winner" on the speccy just shows how biased many of these "Comparisons" are. The C64 is clearly the winner. Music, scrolling, gameplay and no slow downs blows the other versions away