Why does Jungle Hunt go left?

[Gunstar]

Has anyone else ever questioned why the "arcade platformer" Jungle Hunt progress to the left with scrolling going from left to right instead of the more common right to left scrolling and progression to the right? What other games do this? (not bi-directional, but only games that scroll left to right)

 

It never really occurred to me before until I was thinking about what I consider to platformers instead of arcade style or adventure games. But now I wonder why the original programmer did it that way, and why is it not more common?

 

I'm curious about scrolling shoot-em-ups too, ones that only progress left, scrolling from left to right. As a matter of fact, any games that progress only to the left with only left to right scrolling.

 

Again, not bi-directional or multi-directional, only left to right scrollers.

 

EDIT: I just thought of another game that does this: Time-Slip by English Software.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Gunstar

[Grevle]

Probably som sort of artistic choice being made when the game was created, Probably, but it may be some other simple reason that is not known at this time.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Grevle

[Gunstar]

Probably som sort of artistic choice being made when the game was created, Probably, but it may be some other simple reason that is not known at this time.

Yeah, I'm curious to here some people's theories about why they think it might have been done, but knowing for sure why isn't important and the title is supposed to be sort of a redundant-joke title, if you get my meaning, the thread title 'Why does Jungle Hunt go left' is more of a "conversation piece" or "conversation starter," to encourage thought of other games like it, I am more curious to hear of other games that do it too.

 

But I did encourage a reply like yours re-questioning "why" in my post...I agree it was probably artistic choice rather than some other reason.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Gunstar

[adam242]

"it be moving to the left, just like MSNBC" lol

 

[Rybags]

To be different, or to disorient the player given that most single direction scrollers were top to bottom or right to left.

 

No idea other than that - attempts to throw the player off by subtle means were fairly common in the day, that's supposedly the reason for the regular colour changes in Scramble and Super Cobra. And probably part of the reason for the scrolling starfield in countless vertical shooters starting with Galaxian.

[Gunstar]

"it be moving to the left, just like MSNBC" lol

 

I loved that!

[Keatah]

Might have something to do with handedness and the motions and timing. And they work better moving to the left, for right-handers.

[Rybags]

Not sure the handedness has anything to do with it - AFAIK I never saw a cocktail version but images I've found of them as well as standups have an action button either side of the stick which allows using either hand. On that note, not even sure I ever saw a Jungle Hunt or Pirate Pete either.

[Keatah]

Maybe not handedness in the physical sense. But maybe it feels psychologically more fun to do the swinging and jumping motion from right to left. The way your eyes track too.

[carlsson]

Was it originally an arcade game? I'm thinking if it had technical reasons, though most CPUs I know of are capable of shifting or rotating bits in both directions. Perhaps something with the graphics subsystem that promoted scrolling in that direction.

 

Panic Express (similar, but not identical to the non-Atari game Stop the Express) scrolls to the left.

[Level42]

Was it originally an arcade game?

 

 

Duh !

 

But it was initially called Jungle King. Until the owners of the Tarzan rights noticed and demanded money....

 

 

 

It also included the traditional Tarzan yell which sounds like it was sampled.

 

Seem to remember there was a graphics hack for Jungle Hunt on the A8. Would be fun if it could be turned back into Jungle King, including the Tarzan yell !

Edited December 14, 2018 by Level42

[+Nezgar]

Yes it was originally an arcade game. I played it at PRGE 2017. Appears to be horizontal CRT orientation. Vertical orientation might be easier for the hardware used by some games....

 

 

EDIT: I see your post now level42 - thanks! I didn't know it was originally called jungle king! Now I can't remember which version I saw at PRGE, but I vaguely recall the Tarzan scream, so maybe it was Jungle King there.

[carlsson]

Ok, so a Taito System SJ, basically a 4 MHz Z80 plus a sound system consisting of four AY chips and its own Z80 to run them. I don't know how graphics are generated, are those CPU driven or some graphics chip not named on that site? One of the other games listed to be using the same hardware platform is Sea Fighter Poseidon from 1984, which scrolls more traditionally from right to left, which probably should eliminate any technical reasons for the left to right scrolling.

[Mclaneinc]

As said, probably for the exact reason you asked, to be different in some way making it a tad unique in its own style for the time..

 

To be honest I'd never given it thought before, I'm so used to multi directional platformers and then 3D platformers that direction became irrelevant as long as I was doing it right

Edited December 14, 2018 by Mclaneinc

[sanny]

 

Who played this video? It almost hurts to watch, I was much better back then :-) (Around '86 on vacation in Italy where the machine was in a cafe bar near the beach.)

[Andromeda Stardust]

Super Mario Bros scrolled only left to right, but that trend was pretty much status quo prior to the early/mid 80s. Humans read left to right for most languages, and the scanning electron beam sweeps left to right in the tube.

 

The bigger answer is early arcades were the wild, wild west with no set conventions. Balloon Fight / Trip mode on the NES / Famicom moved left, but the conventions were already set in place to move right.

 

Nintendo released a "Luigi" mode with NES Remix which is a 100% mirrored port of Super Mario with tweaked jump physics. After decades of running left to right and memorizing the layout, I found it challenging to beat even 1-2.

[NE146]

Seem to remember there was a graphics hack for Jungle Hunt on the A8. Would be fun if it could be turned back into Jungle King, including the Tarzan yell !

 

I know there's a 2600 graphic hack, but if I recall I think someone also did it for the 8-bit versions. They either made it into Jungle King, or Pirate Pete, I forget which..

 

[José Pereira]

The hack I think, almost sure, was by Rybags though don't remember if only him or with other(s)...

[Rybags]

My one adds music and uses a more efficient DLI that makes the NTSC version run at a better speed. But no graphical mods other than using the arcade text font.

 

I think there's a Pirate Pete hack around somewhere, also probably WIP as it's not on Atarimania.

[Mr Robot]

Here's Pirate Pete

 

Jungle Hunt - 'Pirate Pete' (2009)(slampam).xex

[+Stephen]

My guess on this. Pitfall was easier for me to play when going to the left because if you died, it put the player on the far left of the screen, bypassing the danger. I know both games came out in 82 - not sure which one was first.

[Gunstar]

Here is the verswion of Jungle Hunt I've been playing since it was done...is this your version Rybags?

Jungle15.xex

[RevEng]

Taito is a Japanese company. Japanese traditional language (which is still used in books, newspaper, etc) is read top-to-bottom right-to-left, and books tend to be right to left. Perhaps there was some cultural leaning on the part of the designer? Or at least, maybe that helped it feel less weird?

[_The Doctor__]

My one adds music and uses a more efficient DLI that makes the NTSC version run at a better speed. But no graphical mods other than using the arcade text font.

 

I think there's a Pirate Pete hack around somewhere, also probably WIP as it's not on Atarimania.

point us to the posting.

[Lord Thag]

You also have to remember that scrolling right pretty much got made the 'standard' by Super Mario Bros, and everything similar that came out on the NES.

Prior to that, 'scrolling right' was not the standard.

You see this with the key layout on a lot of older PC games. The really old stuff has key layouts that make perfect sense, but feel super weird and counter-intuitive now, because they go against 30 years of everyone using WASD.