Run Baby Run is, without doubt, the greatest game ever created. FACT. Better than other so-called “best games” like Half-Life, Mario 64 or Halo 3. LAW. I have spent more of my life playing this game than any other game. I play it almost every week. I even bought a flash cartridge for my Game Boy Advance so that I could use a Spectrum emulator on there and play it on the move. So, it is only right that I collect together everything RBR and put it here.
The Game
The main aim of Run Baby Run is to drive around the levels, causing the trailing police cars to crash into one another. Each of the cars follows where you drive exactly, except they don’t stop when you do. Use this to drive looping pathways where cars will collide with each other. Once all the following cars are gone, the final car will drive left and right along the bottom of the screen shooting away the scenery. Drive to the bottom of the screen without being shot to finish the level! There are five screens in all, and you play all five even if you fail. However, for each level you complete, you get an extra level after the first five – although it is just the levels wrapping around over and over. Note that your car also speeds up constantly, even when you complete a level! The game only slows down if you crash.
Play The Game
[includeme file=qaop/runbabyrun.txt]
Controls: N – Left, M – Right, X – Brake (like anyone needs a brake!)
The emulator used is Qaop.
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Ahh, one of the only other RBR lovers (or even recognisers..) that I’ve come across, nice to see that I’m not alone 🙂
I didn’t think anyone else like that existed!
I agree with the first line of the article….amazing game
Great game- can’t someone do a similar app?
(This suggestion provided by @xexyzx)
Well, I’m no songwriter, but I’ll give it a go.
Firstly, it’s a very slow song. I think if it was sped up a little I’d like it more. I like it as it is, of course, but if it was a bit faster. And a bit more rock and a bit less folk too, I suppose. Perhaps I’d make the subject of the lyrics more obvious as well, while I’m at it. Supposedly it’s about her parents being 60s hippies and she’s not able to deal with modern life as a result, or something. It’s a bit vague. Make it less vague.
Musically, it needs more guitar solos. All music is better with epic guitar solos, especially if there’s a ten minute drum solo too. So add those. Put a guitar solo after the first chorus – with the last “baby run” kick it in with some metal and wah wah for a couple of minutes, then after the second verse “That’s sure she knows exactly how BANG to carry BANG on BANG BANG BANG DRUM SOLO”. Then a chorus, then another guitar solo that’s a key change higher than the previous one. That should do it.
Oh, and an airhorn at the end. Banging.
Unless xexyzx is talking about the Best Game Ever Made, which also happens to be called Run Baby Run. But why would that be the case? It is Mary Poppins, as it’s practically perfect in every way.
The only possible way to improve it would be to have new levels, but since there’s a level editor, that’s simple. Maybe the game could be remade for every platform ever so I don’t need to use emulators? I really can’t think of anything else, so I’m pretty sure xexyzx is talking about the Sheryl Crow song. Unless he means the book of the same name (I’ve never read it) or the film of the same name (I’ve never seen it), but I can’t comment on those.
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(This suggestion from Duncan Snowden, who may or may not be related to Edward and/or the mountain which yes, I know is spelt with an “o”)
You see the problem here is that I own a lot of games. Over 2500 at the time of writing, and I ain’t going through the lot and checking them against recent Sotheby’s video game auctions (that’s where most games are sold these days, right?) to find out current market values. I’d be here forever. No, instead I’ll go through a few games that I perceive to be worth the most.
Shenmue and Shenmue II (Dreamcast)
They’ve always been quite highly priced, but when Shenmue III was finally announced and became the most successful Kickstarter ever 1 (at the time) copies were selling on eBay for several hundred quid each. I even saw some go for over £1000. Even the version of Shenmue II for the Xbox, which is less desirable generally anyway was being snapped up for silly money. I’m not sure what price I’d expect either title to go for now after the initial interest has died down, but come the release of Shenmue III it’s likely to skyrocket again, at least for a short time.
Pokémon (Various)
Apparently there’s some new telephone real-life Pokémon game? I’d no idea. It’s supposedly pretty popular, anyway, and as a result it seems the price of other Pokémon games has gone up as people rediscover them. I don’t think any have risen to the level Shenmue did, but even relatively new titles in the series – Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby – have started commanding £45-£50 second hand even though it’s still £40 or less new because idiots. I don’t have those games, but I do have Blue, Gold, Sapphire (the original GBA one) and various spinoffs. I think Pokémon Stadium on the N64 and Pokémon Pinball for the GBA are particularly sought after right now, so perhaps they’re worth a fair bit.
Dragon Force (Saturn)
There are a few Saturn games I know that over the years have been ludicrously expensive. Well known are Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Mega Man X3, Dragon Force and Shining Force III. I have both Burning Rangers and Dragon Force, but neither manage the price that the other three do. Of the two, Dragon Force is probably worth more these days, although it was Burning Rangers in the past. How much is worth, though? I’d guess at maybe £100?
Those are my best guesses, I think. I’ve a few others that might be worth something, like Seaman for the Dreamcast, or King Arthur’s World for the SNES, but although they may fetch a decent price it probably isn’t much more than the original RRP.
Of the games listed, I suspect Dragon Force is the one that will hold its price more steadily, with Shenmue and Pokémon both at the mercy of changing fads. Prices may go down as well as up!
For the second part of the question…
That’s easy. It’d have to be Run Baby Run for the Spectrum. It’s my favourite game ever, my most played game ever, and one virtually nobody has heard of. It’s worth peanuts, but getting hold of a replacement cassette would be difficult, I’d expect.
Notes:And I contributed to, at the $250 tier ↩Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)MoreClick to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)
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Now let me just point out a few things here before I begin:
Yes, it has been a long time since I did any game dev stuff
No, I have no idea if I’ll finish this
Run Baby Run is the best game ever
When I was doing Asset Reuse Invaders, the level table I developed for the invaders made me wonder if I could use the same thing to create a level map for a maze. Then I thought, what if I used the levels from Run Baby Run? Then I thought: what if I remade Run Baby Run?
Then 12 year old me’s brain exploded.
I looked into it a bit further, and found that the levels on the Spectrum original were 32 “tiles” wide, and 22 tiles high. On the Spectrum, each tile is 8×8 pixels, but if I use 4×4 tiles, then 32 tiles fit exactly into the 128 pixel wide PICO-8 display.
I had to do it. Or at least try. The normal mapping method used by PICO-8 relies on 8×8 pixel tiles, so I had to create my own – reusing what I’d learned from the level table structure of my invaders game.
function make_levels()
levels[2] = {
{1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1},
{1,1,1,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
{1,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1} }
end
Yes, there’s a way of compressing this or something, but I’m not short on space (yet) and it makes it easier to see in the code. I don’t know why I’ve done level 2 (Huddersfield Foundry) first, but it doesn’t matter.
The code to turn this into an image on the screen is:
function draw_level(l)
for row = 1,#levels[l] do
for col = 1,#levels[l][row] do
block = levels[l][row][col]
if block == 1 then
spr(levelsprites[l],4*col-4,4*row-4)
end
end
end
end
And so, this (from the Spectrum):
Magically becomes this, on PICO-8:
Not bad, eh?
That was my first job. My second task was making the car rotate correctly. I managed that successfully, complicated slightly by creating the car out of two 4×4 pixel sprites rather than one single sprite. There’s a reason for this, which I can’t quite remember now, but has something to do with collisions. Then I ran into issues with collisions, so the rotation code needs to be partially re-written. Regardez:
It’s too fast, obviously, but the big issue is that although head-on collisions with the walls is correctly identified, turning left and right into them is not. I’ve identified this is down to the order in which the rotation and the collision detection take place, but to change it means the rotation code needs re-writing.
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