Green Beret remake in development

Back in 1985, well before the first installments of the now famous Metal Gear franchise, Konami issued another military themed game which, although never quite enjoying the widespread revenue to be earned later on by Solid Snake's adventures, is nowadays still considered a more than decent product by contemporary retro gamers. To be exact, it was an action platformer deemed Green Beret, originally an arcade installment which back in the day enjoyed a conversion to the Nintendo Entertainment System as well, by the name of Rush'n Attack.

For MSX, development was delegated to Konami UK, a rather elusive subsidiary which had its first (and promptly- final) go at ever porting a Konami production. Some have argued that this title deserved a much better port to our beloved system, it being a somewhat grainy rendition which, especially concerning graphics, turned out to be lacking the usual quality Konami had been spoiling MSX users with on a steady basis and continued to do so unto the early '90's. Unfortunately, no known attempts were made by Konami to re-issue Green Beret by themselves, and the game seemed doomed to forever dwell as a prisoner of war in the dark, honourless catacombs of MSX gaming. Today, 25 years after Green Beret's failed MSX mission, it just might have another chance at rehabilitating its name - with a vengeance!

A while ago, we reported about a Time Out remake in development by Pepe Vila, a Spanish MSX developer with whom an interview (in Spanish) can be read right here. Lately, mr. Vila has been working on a reboot of this MSX oldie. As far as development goes, this new version is still lacking enemies, music or complete mapping, but the screenshots at Konamito's barracks are bound to give us a decent impression of what Pepe Vila's planned reboot will look like.

Relevant link: Konamito

Comments (31)

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

12-01-2011, 16:28

Dear Pepe Vila, I really hope for this project to see the light of day!
Would you please consider including (maybe optionally) the music of the "Rush'n Attack" version on NES instead of the somewhat 'dull' military snare beat of the arcade and MSX versions?
If wished, necessary and possible, I'm willing to help you create PSG versions with SCC enhancement.

By ARTRAG

Enlighted (6977)

12-01-2011, 18:02

Green Beret seems an excellent candidate for the experiments from hit9918 about smooth scrolling and sprite multiplexing

http://www.msx.org/forumtopicl10884.html

Why not giving a try?

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

12-01-2011, 19:21

Excellent point!

By Imanok

Paragon (1200)

12-01-2011, 19:23

Just two reactions to ask for smooth scrolling!... that must be a new record!!

By Maggoo

Paragon (1218)

12-01-2011, 19:26

Great initiative. Green Beret is one of my all time favorite in the arcade and the the MSX version did not do it justice. Aside from the smooth scroll, I'd say this game is begging for a MSX 2 port...

By Samor

Prophet (2222)

12-01-2011, 21:15

I also preferred the NES version... it had a cachy tune going for it, instead of the rather monotone drumming from the Arcade version.

By Huey

Prophet (2696)

12-01-2011, 22:45

Just two reactions to ask for smooth scrolling!... that must be a new record!!

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

13-01-2011, 01:14

Just two reactions to ask for smooth scrolling!... that must be a new record!!
Give it some time.. it's just been up there.

By Paulbrk

Hero (611)

13-01-2011, 01:55

i think Green Beret is a game for MSX2, because you can put the sprites:

2 Sprites for the main caracter.

2 Sprites for each enemy

You can put 3 enemies on the same line without problem.

Smooth scroll thanks to set adjust, I do not mind the lateral moving, no waste sprite on mask that.

Better palette

All is for good!!!

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

13-01-2011, 03:52

Well, let's just hope Pepe Vila himself will see this newspost and shine a light on what he is intending to do.

By hap

Paragon (2043)

13-01-2011, 07:45

To just continue programming at own will and not bothering with all the technical suggestions, but secretly enjoying the attention. (if I was him )

By Huey

Prophet (2696)

13-01-2011, 08:58

I say. GFX9000 only with MoonSound and direct video cutscenes (mass media only).

But seriously. I think current version is very promising and I'd love to see a good version on MSX.

By MäSäXi

Paragon (1884)

13-01-2011, 16:37

I don´t like it, because some parts of those screenshots look even better than Commodore 64 conversion. Gladly the music will probably be worse.

I suppose those captives are surely captured because they all have blue afro hair-do and pale white make-up on their face! I am sure that they are vampire and afro loving strange japanese goth freaks. No wonder that some honest folks have captured them, for God´s sake!!

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

13-01-2011, 19:52

Gladly the music will probably be worse.
That would be a good trick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymajs4GdeFI
It's awful! :o My neighbour's dog is really upset now. :P
Did he break his SID chip or is it supposed to sound like that?

By hap

Paragon (2043)

13-01-2011, 20:19

GB loader tune is not great for its technicality, music gets good and moody after 2:15
*also murmurs something about crappy SID emulation*

annnnnd, don't diss Martin Galway stuff =p

By Samor

Prophet (2222)

13-01-2011, 20:34

you're afraid "tipster" will read this topic, right?

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

13-01-2011, 20:51

Sorry, this 'sound' really really goes straight through the bone like a chainsaw.

Can you recommend some other Galway stuff I can listen to?

Who is "tipster" by the way?

By hap

Paragon (2043)

14-01-2011, 00:01

ok: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjk-4KRRkE4 (game itself is a piece of shit btw:P)

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

14-01-2011, 00:25

Thanks! Way better indeed.

By MäSäXi

Paragon (1884)

14-01-2011, 12:04

What the heck you are talkin´ about, Demonseed? I have always liked that loader music.

Don´t you like Green Beret´s title screen theme either? Strange you are! Though, I understand that this is because of different tastes in music. That´s why I listen 1950´s Rock-A-Billy and you don´t. 2=)

Or maybe you would like more if Green Beret has been published on tape and it had wonderful SILENT loading screen like this:
www.worldofspectrum.org/showscreen.cgi?screen=screens/load/g/gif/GreenBeret.gif
and maybe it would be better if our Green Beret was totally straight Spectrum port (except slower, of course;))

By the way, you should go to your neighbour´s door right now and say you are VERY SORRY, say this to their dog and to them too, as you liked so much those Commodore 64 Green Beret tunes that you had to play them with hellishly high volume, that your neighbour´s dog (and neighbours too) got insane. ;)

Do not tell me you don´t like Yie Ar Kung-Fu music either?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDoGYlAzT7w

Backgrounds are "quite different" when compared to dull (partly probably memory restrictions of 16Kb cartridge) single screen Konami graphics.

And Comic Bakery, you don´t like that video either?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcxcruoGE7o

Quite different stuff compared to totally silent MSX title/loading screens..................... :/

Maybe this is a fruitless attempt, but I do wish, that Pepe "Green Beret" Vila ;) game could have PSG version of Martin Galway´s original Commodore 64 Green Beret´s title screen theme, at least optionally. :) (To hear how it would sound like, please listen to some famous Spectrum composer´s version, it is not finished and it is badly off-tone in certain parts, but still please do listen it. I think it was made by Frantisek Fuka)

By MäSäXi

Paragon (1884)

14-01-2011, 12:45

As (most) people dislike original MSX Green Beret, I must say that it had something which many MSX games doesn´t have, something which even the best (MSX-1) cartridge games didn´t have at all........ it has high resolution picture in title screen! (even it was SCREEN 1 stuff) Compare this to dull cartridges which have game´s name and "PUSH SPACE TO START" or "1 PLAEYR - 2 PLAYER" selection or something like that.... and that´s it. I know, I know, Konami games have demo and even better Konami games have story too. Hmmmmm.... Mopi Ranger had non-stop replaying animated title screen, but I think that was the best cartridge games could offer (if demos and stories are not counted). Not to talk about cassette games, few cassette games had high resolution picture in title screen though (loading screen in second use) like Jet Bomber, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Buzz Off! Though I am not sure if Buzz Off had loading screen or not, but it had that neat hi-res picture during nice melody play.

Yeah, I like the idea that games should have neat high resolution picture as title screen. (no, I don´t mean that Pepe Vila´s Green Beret must have such thing, I just said it generally)

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

14-01-2011, 13:53

Hey MäSäXi, ofcourse some music while loading is always better than silence. But I remember some C64 games did offer enough time for it due to the loading times.
I remember my classmates at primary school saying "Homework? I always do my homework while the game is loading."

Don't know about porting the Spectrum version; the MSX version was maybe below usual Konami (or other developers) standards (especially that it was a bit too slow) but at least it had some color going.

I think those Yie-Ar Kung Fu backgrounds on the C64 are indeed very cool!

And ofcourse I liked the Green Beret loading screen on MSX, but I liked most of those, for instance Titanic, Phantis, Astro Marine Corps, Chiller, Death Wish III etc.

By MäSäXi

Paragon (1884)

14-01-2011, 18:01

Hmmm... with some "extreme long" exceptions, I cannot say that original C64 tape games had too long loading time, especially as many of them (about in middle eighties onwards) already had faster loaders. (I am not referring to pirated games´ turbo-loaders) But maybe I haven´t seen enough (original) C64 cassette games during loading. Commodore Disk drives were totally different thing.
Maybe your classmates didn´t have C64, as turbo-games didn´t load too many minutes, or then they had very small amount of homework or then I have just Golden Memories.....

Aahhh, that Spectrum Green Beret were some kinda irony from me.... (I have nothing against Spectrum conversion, just against MSX conversions which are below MSX standard)

Did you like those C64 Yie-Ar Kung-Fu and Comic Bakery musics? Sadly there is no video about Comic Bakery ingame tunes (two tunes), only remixes, and at least some remixes were not made on c64 at all... you have to download Comic Bakery and try it.... or maybe you can download Comic Bakery´s sid file and play MSX version using them. Please remember to switch to another ingame tune everytime you complete a stage.

There´s no Green Beret loading screen on MSX, did you mean that Spectrum loading screen I showed you or MSX Green Beret´s title screen?

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

14-01-2011, 18:22

Oh yes, I meant the (nice) Green Beret title screen indeed (not really a loading screen in the purest sense).

Back in the '80s, the Dutch and German kids with a computer (to play games with, besides a cute little Atari 2600 ofcourse) at home that I knew were roughly 1/3 with a Nintendo, another 1/3 had a Commodore and the remaining 1/3 owned an MSX (or at least their fathers did ).
And no, we didn't have that much homework.

About the Yie-Ar Kung Fu and Comic Bakery music, to be honest (I shouldn't lie), no, I didn't like it.
But I have the Win-VICE emulator so I'll give C64's Comic Bakery a try for sure.

EDIT: I tried it, nice! Especially appreciate the fast pace and nice scroll of this version. I liked the in-game musics a little bit more. It's pretty funny stuff.

By Ivan

Ascended (9373)

15-01-2011, 11:03

Do you remember this interview?

By MäSäXi

Paragon (1884)

15-01-2011, 12:56

Yeah, I do remember that interview. What about it?

I guess no-one had asked more questions from dennis?

Hmmm... I still cannot understand why those blue afro haired guys are hovering above blue rocks? Or am I the only one who sees it that way?

Anyway, I hope I can see that Green Beret finished someday, or at least more screenshots.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

26-01-2018, 10:07

Maybe this will inspire picking it up?
https://youtu.be/EOC206GwL2s

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

26-01-2018, 19:59

Sounds awesome JohnHassink! It would be awesome if this tragedy of a game gets a good port to MSX some day...

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

27-01-2018, 17:40

Thanks Randam! Well, at least the source code is still available:
https://sites.google.com/site/testmsx/Home/smooth-horizontal...
Maybe someone will have a look at it, who knows.

By PingPong

Enlighted (4156)

27-01-2018, 20:01

any idea of where one can find a screen shot of the remake?

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

27-01-2018, 20:06

To call it a remake at this development stage may be too much said, but there is a conceptual video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkyarIw8PME

Green Beret remake in development

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