Heads up NES gamers! Sam's Journey by Knights of Bytes is now available for the NES

When Knights of Bytes released Sam's Journey for the Commodore 64 back in 2017 it was a huge hit! Indie Retro News awarded Sam's Journey game of the year 2017 as this game really surpassed all our expectations, delivering us a huge epic adventure that really pushed the limitations of the C64. Well it's the NES's turn to be a part of this incredible gaming experience, as we have been informed by Knights of Bytes, that this amazing game originally for the C64, is now available for the NES!

Here's what the website says about this stunning game "Sam's Journey is a brand-new original scrolling platform game developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It's about a cute little hero called Sam who finds himself on an unexpected journey in a strange world. Wasp SpriteGuide Sam through many different locations such as deep forests, hot deserts or frozen mountains! Find hidden gems and discover secret passages, but beware of the creatures! Sam can run, jump, climb and swim. He can pick up items, carry them around and throw them at enemies. And with the power of special costumes, Sam completely changes his appearance and gains additional skills!"

Main Features :

  • · Classic 8-Bit Platform Action ·
  • · Colorful Graphics ·
  • · Fast Free-Directional Scrolling ·
  • . Sam SpriteToad Sprite· Many Basic Moves Plus Climbing And Swimming ·
  • · 6 Special Costumes With Additional Skills ·
  • · 3 Overworld Maps ·
  • · 27 Huge Levels With Multiple Sections ·
  • · 2000 Screens To Be Explored ·
  • · 14 Different Graphical Themes ·
  • · 19 Beautiful Tunes ·
  • · Sound Effects ·
  • · Hidden Items To Be Found ·
  • · Secret Passages To Be Discovered ·
  • · Checkpoint System ·
  • · Savegames On The Cartridge

Links :1) Source  2) Boxed Editions

11 comments:

  1. As a Commodore 64 kid, I never thought I'd say this, but the NES version is better than the one for the breadbox. Unbelievable. https://youtu.be/ruhWSxYhM7E

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  2. About Sam's Journey NES vs C64 comparison comment:

    The basic NES hardware supports only 40KB of ROM total, up to 32KB PRG and 8KB CHR, thus only a single tile and sprite table are possible.

    "Sam's Journey on the NES uses a TNROM type "MMC3" board. It has 512 KiB of ROM for the CPU, of which the game uses 464 KiB, as well as 8 KiB of RAM for the graphics unit, which are then filled dynamically by the game. There is also 8 KiB of additional RAM on board, which is maintained by a battery."

    What an MMC3 chip Cartridge?
    "MMC3"
    The MMC3 was introduced in 1988. It adds an IRQ timer to allow split screen scrolling without the sacrifice of sprite 0, along with two selectable 8KB program ROM banks and two 2KB+four 1KB selectable character ROM banks, which allows easy instant swapping of sprite and tile data. 8KB of save game RAM is supported.

    Υου see NES had enchancing several different types of "enhancing" MMC chips in the NES cartridges .
    ---
    (MMC) Multi-memory controllers or memory management controllers are different kinds of special chips designed by various video game developers for use in Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridges. These chips extend the capabilities of the original console and make it possible to create NES games with features the original console cannot offer alone.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_management_controller_(Nintendo)
    ---

    And beside the MMC3 enhancing NES CARTRIDGE chip
    also in Sam's Journey NES vs C64 comparison context you have to consider that,

    The NES CONSOLE
    1_ was designed to do strickly one job and one job only to work as a video game console only and thus as specialised was very optimised in doing so .
    2_ Along with ~80% higher clocked CPU (compared to C64 CPU) themore capable ( than VIC) NES Graphic PPU(nit)

    1_ and 2_ factors along with the different types enhancing MMC chips
    enabled NES to perform not like a typical 8 bit machine but especially in 2d action/platforn games somewhere between an 8 bit and a 16bit machine

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  3. Putting C64 vs NES aside, all the best for the success of this game on the NES! Looks fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much! 🙂 We found that the NES community is a bit more distributed and thus harder to reach than the C64 one, but we're working on it. Those NES fans who already received their copies gave positive feedback so far.

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  4. Arrivata ieri la cartuccia e provato subito , fantastico ,grafica e animazione superba , velocità impressionante ...questo fine settimana lo giocherò di sicuro fino in fondo.
    Voglio prendere pure la versione per C64 ma per adesso è esaurita :(

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    Replies
    1. Glad you like it so much! 🙂 According to Protovision, the C64 version will be re-stocked by next week.

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  5. As predicted the c64 music rules supreme, and for some reason I'm find it harder to catch ladders in this version...not sure why.

    But other than that we have some slightly more responsive controls and ever so slightly zippier action...still a great great game and I look forward to 100%ing it in the near future...well worth the wait.

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  6. It looks awesome. What a beautiful game ! Congrats guys !!!

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  7. where is the NTSC famicom (J) /nes (US) revision ? too shame the game is only nes PAL !

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  8. The game is not PAL only. For the boxed editions, you can choose between PAL and NTSC. There's even a Famicom style box available! Just visit the poly.play online shop to find out more:
    https://www.polyplay.xyz/search/?lang=eng&qs=sams+journey+nes.

    ReplyDelete

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