Bionic Commando

The day the arcade machine arrived in the office, I knew we were in for a challenge. Bionic Commando had 8-way scrolling and that distinctive extendable arm mechanic. This wasn't going to be a straightforward port.

The Technical Reality

From a technical standpoint, this was the most difficult game I'd worked on so far. The arcade hardware could handle smooth multi-directional scrolling without breaking a sweat. Home computers in 1988? Not so much.

I ended up implementing a push scroll system. It wasn't ideal - not the smooth, dynamic scrolling of the original - but it was what the hardware could manage. Sometimes you have to compromise between what you want to create and what's actually possible.

The Development Process

As usual, there were no specs to work from. The process was straightforward but time-consuming: play the game obsessively, take screenshots with a 35mm camera, develop the film, and recreate everything from those grainy reference photos. This was standard practice for arcade ports back then.

Lessons Learned

This project taught me the value of pragmatic solutions. The push scroll wasn't perfect, but it let us ship a playable version of the game on hardware that wasn't designed for this kind of action. Sometimes good enough really is good enough, especially when the alternative is abandoning the project entirely.