Street Fighting Man Longplay (PC DOS) [QHD]

Developed by Sculptured Software and published by Mastertronic in 1989

Time for another obscure DOS title, this time Street Fighting Man by Stephen Coleman. This isometric beat 'em up was published by Mastertronic in 1989, and is obscure enough that it's not included in YouTube's own gaming database.

The game features CGA, Tandy and EGA (shown in this recording) graphics modes, and while not up VGA standards, it's still looks pretty decent. I love the isometric visuals and artwork in general, which are somewhat reminiscent of The Last Ninja and Vendetta by System 3, and the environments are actually quite detailed.

The objective is simple: wander the streets of each city, beating up punks (and the occaisional cop) while searching for Nick's girlfriend; rescue her from each gang territory in the city to complete the level.

Defeating enemies increases your life energy, so you'll want to maximise the number of enemies you defeat, without getting hit in return. You'll occasionally find weapons - crowbars, bike chains, knives - that not only increase your attack power, but give you a little extra reach to boot. Be aware that enemies can use these too, so be sure to grab them first.

If you're interested in playing the game, be aware that multiple versions of the game were released, some of which are incomplete. Most of the sites hosting the game for download (or play via web browser), including the venerable archive.org, are using the incomplete version, where walking through a door on the New York level results in a fatal error message that prompts the user to swap disks, but the necessary files are missing.

Fortunately, I was finally able to source a copy of the game that actually includes the missing files (BINTF.MSH, BINTP0.MSH and BINTP1.MSH) and finish the recording.

Credits
Coding: Stephen Coleman
Graphics: Clark Sorenson, Les Pardew, Shannon Ison

#fightinggames
#retrogaming
#mastertronic