Gunstar Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 I was trying these two shooter games from the Polish company Sonix. I like the graphics of both games and think they are pretty good games. I really like the parallax scrolling of 'Guard' and the enemy formations, but the control for acceleration and deceleration are far too sensitive and the main playfield is a bit empty. Plus I prefer the steady forward motion like in 'Humanoid' over the Defender style looping background of 'Guard.' As for Humanoid, I like the level graphics and obstacle strewn playfield, and I like the control of the acceleration and deceleration better on 'Humanoid' but I don't care much for the rehashed Mirax Force enemy graphics and non-existant A.I. I really wish these two games had elements combined into one smash-hit shooter. The parallax scrolling and enemy formations of 'Guard' and the cool graphical playfield and control of 'Humanoid.' What do you guys think of these two games? What do you like about them and dislike? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) I find both games are pretty generic in the end. Actually, a number of Polish programs just borrow graphics and ideas from similar C64 titles and cut down all interesting gameplay elements... Fortunately, there are exceptions like Miecze Valdgira and some others. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Edited March 22, 2007 by www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) I find both games are pretty generic in the end. Actually, a number of Polish programs just borrow graphics and ideas from similar C64 titles and cut down all interesting gameplay elements... Fortunately, there are exceptions like Miecze Valdgira and some others. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Can you tell me who published Miecze Valgira? Never mind, ASF's the publisher, just found it on Bacardi's page. Ok, I've tried that game...I thought you were giving an example of a good (Polish)shooter, not a platformer... Edited March 22, 2007 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) Can you tell me who published Miecze Valgira? Never mind, ASF's the publisher, just found it on Bacardi's page. Ok, I've tried that game...I thought you were giving an example of a good (Polish)shooter, not a platformer... I suggest trying Kult (http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2203), which is very much like Zybex in nice hi-res graphics (similar power-up system). Edited March 22, 2007 by pseudografx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share Posted March 22, 2007 Can you tell me who published Miecze Valgira? Never mind, ASF's the publisher, just found it on Bacardi's page. Ok, I've tried that game...I thought you were giving an example of a good (Polish)shooter, not a platformer... I suggest trying Kult (http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2203), which is very much like Zybex in nice hi-res graphics (similar power-up system). Thanks, yeah I actually downloaded Kult earlier, while looking through the Polish titles. I hadn't tried it before becuase I had no idea what it was; there used to be just a screenshot of the boring title screen and no box shot to form an idea of what type of game it was. Today, when I saw the picture of the box cover I realized it was a shooter. I still haven't tried it out yet, but will shortly. I'm just going through some of these PAL titles again after a couple of years. I checked many before, but at the time only had a stock NTSC machine and many wouldn't load and/or play right. I've had a PAL Antic modified NTSC 8-bit for a while now, but am just getting around to checking the games out again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) Ok, I tried KULT and I like it! It is similiar to Zybex and I do like the high-res graphics for a change. Below are 4 pictures, my 4 choices of how I want the game to look on my Commodore 1084s monitor. The first is S-video without artifacting color, the second is S-video with artifacting color, the third is composite b/w, the fourth is composite with artifacting color. Of course all four are much sharper in real life, the blurriness is due to a poor autofocus on my digital camera Edited March 22, 2007 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urchlay Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Ok, I tried KULT and I like it! It is similiar to Zybex and I do like the high-res graphics for a change. Below are 4 pictures, my 4 choices of how I want the game to look on my Commodore 1084s monitor. The first is S-video without artifacting color, the second is S-video with artifacting color, the third is composite b/w, the fourth is composite with artifacting color. Of course all four are much sharper in real life, the blurriness is due to a poor autofocus on my digital camera Weird... your "S-Video without artifacting" still has faint pink and green artifacts. Are these really there on the 1084s, or is it a side-effect of your camera? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 (edited) Ok, I tried KULT and I like it! It is similiar to Zybex and I do like the high-res graphics for a change. Below are 4 pictures, my 4 choices of how I want the game to look on my Commodore 1084s monitor. The first is S-video without artifacting color, the second is S-video with artifacting color, the third is composite b/w, the fourth is composite with artifacting color. Of course all four are much sharper in real life, the blurriness is due to a poor autofocus on my digital camera Weird... your "S-Video without artifacting" still has faint pink and green artifacts. Are these really there on the 1084s, or is it a side-effect of your camera? It's the monitor, all NTSC monitors and TV's are like this. People like to think that artifacting is 100% gone with S-video and that is just not the case, if you look very closely, there is still artifacting. At least on monitors and TV's that are older than 10 years. The S-video with artifacting is really just the color/chroma on the monitor turned all the way up to it's absolute limit(the composite picture with artifacting color is at the same color level as the S-video picture without artifacting; top and bottom left). If that were a full color screen the color would be blindingly intense. Newer standard definition CRT sets may be better, I don't know as My TV is with S-video is like 10 years old (hey if it ain't broke why fix it?). That's just s-video though, if you use component or better on NTSC than you lose artifacting completely. NTSC high-res 8-bit games that were made to use the artifacting purposfully for color don't look right at all on S-video, even if there is slight artifacting, as the composite smears pixels so artifact colors look solid, on S-video you see the individual pixel patterns that are no longer smeared, so in that sense artifacting doesn't work on s-video. Edited March 23, 2007 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urchlay Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 Hm, I can't get Kult to load... It reads 20-30 sectors, then goes to a black screen and just sits there. I have a 1200XL with 32-in-1/Warp OS and 256K upgrade, a bit like your 1200XL, Gunstar... but without the PAL ANTIC. Is that what's keeping it from working? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 (edited) Hm, I can't get Kult to load... It reads 20-30 sectors, then goes to a black screen and just sits there. I have a 1200XL with 32-in-1/Warp OS and 256K upgrade, a bit like your 1200XL, Gunstar... but without the PAL ANTIC. Is that what's keeping it from working? Most likely, Yes, the lack of a PAL Antic. But are you using a PAL OS? I'm 99% sure it's a lack of a PAL Antic, but there is a 1% chance the program is doing the check for a PAL OS. I'd guess that less than half of PAL software (basically everything from across the Atlantic) will work properly or at all on an 8-bit with the NTSC Antic, and then it probably won't work right or fully or will eventually crash. On the other hand, if you have a PAL computer or an NTSC with PAL Antic, the vast majority of BOTH NTSC and PAL software will work. Of course with the PAL Antic conversion you have to have a TV/monitor that is capable of displaying a 50Hz screen refresh rate. I think all Commodore monitors are capable of this, as well as most newer TV's. The TV/monitor should state on it's label 50-60Hz. Edited March 23, 2007 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 (edited) Anyway, back more to the main topic, thanks for the heads-up on KULT pseudografx, it does combine some elements of both Guard and Humanoid, except for Guard's cool upper&lower 3 level parallax scrolling. KULT is a good attempt at a Zybex clone. \ Are there any other decent shooters that have more than one layer of parallax scrolling on the 8-bit? (besides Guard and Tower Toppler's[Nebulous] bonus level) Edited March 23, 2007 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urchlay Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 Tried the PAL XL/XE OS, same result... Hm, do you also have a PAL GTIA? Is your video signal actually PAL (with PAL color encoding), or NTSC at 50Hz? I've got an old NTSC TV that can display Atari 2600 PAL games (50Hz without rolling, but the colors are wrong). All Commodore monitors? I've got a 1702, never tried it at 50Hz... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 (edited) Tried the PAL XL/XE OS, same result... Hm, do you also have a PAL GTIA? Is your video signal actually PAL (with PAL color encoding), or NTSC at 50Hz? I've got an old NTSC TV that can display Atari 2600 PAL games (50Hz without rolling, but the colors are wrong). All Commodore monitors? I've got a 1702, never tried it at 50Hz... The 1702 should work. Does it say 50-60Hz on the rear label? The color is NTSC and it will be off a bit, but this can be compensated for quite a bit if you adjust the chroma pot on the interior of the computer and in combination use the hue/tint control you can get close to the proper PAL colors, I often adjust my tint/hue depending on if I'm playing an NTSC or PAL game/demo. It's NTSC at 50Hz. I think technically what's happening, in laymens terms, is the GTIA is the end output for video, which is NTSC, but the PAL Antic chip is sending it's info to the GTIA at 50Hz, but the GTIA is able to sync down to 50Hz output automatically so they can work together and allow PAL software to run correctly. I know you need the NTSC GTIA becuase an NTSC monitor/TV can't display the PAL colors(different type of color encoding). You'd need a PAL TV/monitor at least with a PAL GTIA, and the crystal would have to be changed to the PAL version too. Most people find that the color problems and having to adjust the chroma pot and/or tint a bit to more closely match the proper colors is a small price to pay to open up a program library to the NTSC user that is at least as large as the NTSC library. It is the 50-60Hz issue that keeps most PAL games from working properly on NTSC machines. Most modern TV's are region free and can handle both NTSC and PAL color encoding. The PAL Antic mod is supposed to be something that's impossible to do, but the first guy to ever do it, Nir Dary IIRC, didn't know it was supposed to be impossible and swapped out the chips and it worked. Edited March 23, 2007 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 Anyway, back more to the main topic, thanks for the heads-up on KULT pseudografx, it does combine some elements of both Guard and Humanoid, except for Guard's cool upper&lower 3 level parallax scrolling. KULT is a good attempt at a Zybex clone. \ Are there any other decent shooters that have more than one layer of parallax scrolling on the 8-bit? (besides Guard and Tower Toppler's[Nebulous] bonus level) I remember seeing a parallax effect in Extirpator, but except for the Hubbard's music the game is not very special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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