Why does James Pond II: Codename Robocod have a release on so many different consoles, including modern ones?

[PSPMan3000]

I swear every time I turn around I find out this thing has another release I wasn't aware of. As far as I know it's most recent release is on Switch, but just today I found out it was on PS1, and that release got made into a PS One Classic for PSN, so it also made it it's way onto PSP, PS3 and Vita. This is in addition to all it's original retro gaming PC releases (like the Atari ST, Amiga, Comodore 64, etc.) and all the retro consoles like Game Boy, GBA, SNES, Game Gear, etc.

I have to ask... why? The game looks cool for one of the really old titles (it's from before I was born) but I don't really see it in the cultural conversation the same way you see games like DOOM or even Zool. Are the rights to it really cheap or something? Also, which version should I play? I've heard the newer ports lose a brand deal that causes a bunch of content to be cut out.

 

[nxs]

i don't know the answer to your question but i can tell you that Aquatic Games (1992) is pretty good fun (if you have a joystick to play it with)

 

[Clippy]

I only ever played the Amiga version and I can say it's a good game but certainly not in the 'don't call yourself a gamer if you've never heard of it' category. Some quick Googling revealed that the modern releases might be missing some levels so you're probably better off sticking to the older ports.

 

[Scotty]

It's EVERYWHERE, man. I wouldn't be surprised if you're able to play it on a smart fridge.

 

[lonelyrollingstars]

I think the rights to it filtered down to some shitty IP holding company who are trying to milk it for everything it's worth. I've seen several other C64/Amiga games being ported to absolutely everything and it seems like it's usually British devs, so I'm guessing it's whoever bought US Gold/Ocean/Mastertronic/some other consolidated publisher making low-effort "emulator and ROM in a wrapper" releases like the people who bought Bubsy. Since WinUAE/VICE/many other emulators are open source there are ports of them for everything, and getting it running on a new platform takes virtually no work on their part, so even if they only sell 20-30 copies throughout the release's lifetime they still make a profit. The James Pond series had a fairly warm reception in the UK, so I'm willing to bet they make at least a few thousand from every new release.