Forums > Game Forums > RoboCop > Nowhere to be found...
ZeTomes (36296) on 7/12/2016 6:37 PM · Permalink · Report
Greetings
I'm trying to find the abandonware version for PC, which is basically the ported version of the other 8bit original versions as Spectrum, C64, etc., and not the ported version for PC of the adapted version for the arcade. I can't find it anywhere and I believe the game doesn't have any copyright infringments. Any clue?
Cheers
Jake AM (9493) on 7/13/2016 1:46 AM · Permalink · Report
Is this what you were looking for?
There's also here... and here.
Just did a quick search via Google, but hopefully that's what you were looking for.
ZeTomes (36296) on 7/13/2016 5:39 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
I'm afraid not my friend... This is a nasty one to find because very few people know that there are two versions for PC (well, that would be true if Moby didn't have the extreme rigour and quality as its presentation cards): one directly ported from the original, which is the entry this message is connected with, and another which was an adaptation from the arcades.
Curiously Robocop, as a sole game, was firstly released for 8bit computers (this entry) by Ocean and only after it was adapted for the Arcades (Data East). For the 1st time (I believe) an Arcade game was ruled by the copyrights of an 8bit computer game (Ocean had to be mentioned on the Arcade version) instead of the opposite.
So, the 1st PC version was an adaptation from the original 8bit game, and the 2nd from the arcade version. I'm trying to find the first one. I know it exists because I had it. But I guess not many copies survived, if any...
Cheers and thanks
Pseudo_Intellectual (66274) on 7/14/2016 1:55 AM · Permalink · Report
I'm pretty sure something like Lode Runner would have come first.
Terok Nor (41853) on 7/14/2016 6:47 AM · Permalink · Report
I do not think the 8-bit version is the original - the arcade was out several months earlier (late 88 compared to early-to-mid 89). That Ocean is mentioned in the arcade game probably means Ocean had the license, sublicensed it to Data East who made the arcade game, with Ocean then porting the game to home computers.
ZeTomes (36296) on 7/14/2016 2:21 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
You're technically right I agree. Ocean bought the licences for using Robocop's trademark on every product related to videogames; Robocop as the videogame developed by Ocaen was licensed at its script stage either as code or storyboard and it was sold later for arcade developers like Data East, as can be seen for example on the documentary "From Bedrooms to Billions" (which by the way is an excellent documentary concerning the history of videogames in Britain).
Even if the Arcade version was released earlier than the 8bit, I think it's fairly reasonable to presume that the 8bit version of Robocop is closer to the original ideas or to what was licensed at its script stage than the Data East version since both were made by Ocean and the company had a 8bit market target, more specifically to ZX Spectrum.
ZeTomes (36296) on 7/13/2016 5:51 AM · Permalink · Report
Thanks for the help. This is indeed a nasty one which I'm trying to find a long time ago, probably since more than 20 years. I guess many of these copies were only preserved in few countries in Europe. I even doubted its existence, although I had a copy in the past, because I couldn't find any reference to it anywhere, except here.
Cheers
Victor Vance (18089) on 7/13/2016 10:29 AM · Permalink · Report
Is it this here (strange the screenshots there look a bit different then our documented DOS screenshots)?: