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You can get the game for however much you're comfortable paying or not paying from:
Windows version (the one in this video): https://lowcarb.itch.io/bagman-comes-back
C64 version: https://lowcarb.itch.io/bagman-comes-back-c64-version
lowcarb.itch.io is aka LC-Games aka Luca Carminati -- here on YouTube as @lucacarminati2095 : https://www.youtube.com/@lucacarminati2095
My other Pac / maze games playlist:
Was able to play for longer than I would'a thought on my first go, on default settings; got real tough when bumping them up to 3 guards instead of the default 2, and Expert difficulty--faster guards, I think? It does feel like kind of a slow game as you're waiting for the elevator, or moving slower when carrying the $ bags, especially the blue ones. But, there's a lot of suspense because once a guard or two takes a certain route you can suddenly find your escape options narrowed dramatically!
Feels very influenced by Donkey Kong, which had come out a year before the original Bagman hit the arcades in 1982--distributed by Stern in the States, and by Taito in Japan.
I like how all the physics-y stuff: guards falling down an elevator shaft knock YOU out if they land on you, and you can drop bags down shafts to knock out guards below.
I found out after recording that you can move the wheelbarrow! And I read later in the readme--haven't managed this yet--that if you place it over a ladder or elevator shaft, a guard coming up will get knocked out when they hit it. And from watching the author's demo video of the C64 version https://youtu.be/y8zQwTBDuLU?t=52 afterwards--I confirmed this in his Windows version--I found out you can slide a bag down a slope to knock out a guard standing there!
The stages (8 new ones, according to the author; I've read in YT vids of the arcade original that it loops indefinitely, so maybe these do, too) are mainly horizontal, while the screen aspect is vertical--from videos it looks like this was how the original arcade levels were--from this 2010 reconstruction by a French programmer disassembling the original arcade game, it looks like the original stages were three screens wide: https://jotd.pagesperso-orange.fr/bagman/index.html --so they have to scroll left and right as you move around, and a guard you couldn't see before can suddenly scroll into view and you realize you're trapped. The author has another go at a Bagman with new levels in 2022, called Bagman Strikes Back (Bagman Comes Back was 2021), and that one has a horizontal screen, and stages that fit it exactly, so no scrolling, which looks keen; BSB also has separate high score screens for the four difficulty levels--but he removes the lives and guard number options this first try has, interestingly. I'm gonna be recording that game next.
(The author's C64 version of Bagman Comes Back, which came after the Windows version, has a horizontal screen, but still requires a tiny amount of scrolling.)
One thing I've noticed with the LC-Games for Windows is that they crank my ~3 yr old mid-range gaming laptop's CPU up to the mid-teens-ish even when idling on the intro screen or title screen, causing the cooling fan to kick in. They run smoothly--just seem to swallow a certain amount of CPU no matter what. I tried Bagman Comes Back's C64 version in the Vice C64 emulator and that was taking only about 4% CPU while idle. Another publisher's Arcade Game Series: Ms. Pac-Man (Steam) plays at about 4% in Windows; then again, Sega's Crazy Taxi (Steam) idles in its 2D menu at about 17%--so I guess this isn't that uncommon--so I won't worry about it anymore. ^ _^
I like how the title screen is multilingual, rotating through the US title, Bagman, the French title, Le Bagnard, which translates as "The Convict"--the Bagman/Bagnard similarity in spelling but with kinda different meanings is clever, then!--and what I suppose must be the Italian title, Galeotto, which Wikipedia says means "prisoner" (historically from "galeotti di galea," Italian for "galley slave"--Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/italian-english/galeotto ).
I've seen the author reply in Italian on itch, so I guess he probably IS from Italy--so I can mark his games as European in my game database. : ) |
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| | | | Forgot to write, game is by French automotive electronic console company Valadon Automation (oh shoot I probably called it "Automotive" or something in the video), who made machines that were kinda arcade machine-shaped and in the early 80's apparently thought they might as well try arcade games, too! |
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| | | | Err the original 1982 arcade game Bagman is by Valadon, I mean! |
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| | | | According to the readme, a pick axe lasts for eight seconds of use before disappearing--but if put down before time runs out, resets to having four seconds of use left. |
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| | | | Via archive.org, Valadon's web site went own in 2015 or so; you can see the funky automotive industrial consoles they made on the archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20141109125909/http://www.valadon-automation.com/ |
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| | | Also, it has Turkey in the Straw. ^ _^
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