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Chimera+ A new enhanced remake of the original game released


Tezz

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Is the Kettle of Fish broken beyond repair? I remember being the most curious about it as a kid.

Yea it's a shame as it's just the 32 bytes of overwritten code that we're missing. Shahid mentioned that he hand wrote this small game some years earlier and got the chance to make use of it in Chimera as an Easter egg. The hand written notes were probably lost in the burglary that he suffered unfortunately.

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I actually spoke with Shahid yesterday by email as somebody had posted a link to the YouTube video on his Twitter feed. He's intending to continue working on the sequel for release this year for its 30th anniversary :)

Sorry, for sounding blunt, but do we need a sequel of that "Chimera" of the Atari Version?

I also don't understand all the "thankfullness" to S. Ahmad?

 

In other ranges someone should stand in some corner and be ashamed to put such poor work offered....

 

You actually showed, or better teached him, "how it had been done right" . So, thanks in addition.

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Lets be fair to Shahid though, he probably had months to do his work and Tezz has had years.

 

Yes, Tezz's version is a lot more playable and graphically a bit better, but even he thanks Shahid for his work.

 

Whatever is put out first will be beaten by a later version. The Amiga is better than the Atari 8-bit (technically), why, because it had something to work from and improve.

 

I must admit though, I don't see why the original Chimera on the C64 is faster than on the A8.

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I tend to agree, the Atari version was fairly attrocious and gave the impression of a rushed port with little attention to taking advantage of many features.

Possibly the C64 has an advantage in that occlusion of sprite data is probably faster than rendering a softsprite and doing the occlusion there as well but this remake clearly shows what could be done if some more effort was put in.

 

I don't know how much time Tezz has put into it, but would be surprised if it's greatly more than was put into porting the original.

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Yes, but it was gaming masterpiece, especially in its day on a home computer.

 

No doubt.... I just wanted to point out that blaming coders work with the argument of not being a "technical masterpiece" is like... hmmm... Maybe Tezz did asked why it was so slow on A8... ;) maybe there was a "wrapper" code?

 

When porting Metagallactic Llamas over to A8... the VIC-20 source code was so... beginners assembling code... and it was written by Jeff Minter! but would I blame him for that? I guess not... ;) not because he is THE Jeff Minter but well... I was not there nor do I know the constraintes back in the 80s when he wrote the game on VIC-20... same with the A8 Gridrunner port... (yeah... I know I need to release Gridrunner original ;))

Edited by Heaven/TQA
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No doubt.... I just wanted to point out that blaming coders work with the argument of not being a "technical masterpiece" is like... hmmm... Maybe Tezz did asked why it was so slow on A8... ;) maybe there was a "wrapper" code?

 

When porting Metagallactic Llamas over to A8... the VIC-20 source code was so... beginners assembling code... and it was written by Jeff Minter! but would I blame him for that? I guess not... ;) not because he is THE Jeff Minter but well... I was not there nor do I know the constraintes back in the 80s when he wrote the game on VIC-20... same with the A8 Gridrunner port... (yeah... I know I need to release Gridrunner original ;))

 

Point taken. I'm just defensive of Star Raiders in particular. ;) It holds a special place in the Atari game library.

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Without knowing just how long Shahid had to do the A8 version or indeed what the publisher wanted (i.e given how 'small' the UK A8 user base was compared to the C64/ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, i personally cannot see them 'greenlighting' a version that might have taken longer to write, yet used the A8 hardware strength's a lot better), it's a bit hard to call judgement.

 

There are a lot more, high profile games i'd liked to have seen done a lot better on A8-Green Beret, Rampage, Arkanoid etc or done at all...Elite! and i seem to recal a claim from Firebird that there was a chronic shortage of skilled A8 coders willing to take on conversions for them, so personally as a game starved 800XL owner of that era, whilst game could of been coded better, it was never so 'poor' as to make me think, ohhh bloody hell, this is rubbish.

 

 

I'm sure if you asked Shahid , what he could of done differently, if he could do it all over again, he'd explain why it turned out the way it did.

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Maybe Tezz could email Shahid and get his version of events? (the story behind A8 Chimera) and put the info up here, before his work is commented on much further, as currently he's being judged as it were without any of us really knowing the full facts behind the differences between the 2 versions.

 

Youtube is a useful comparison tool for a quick reference, but it does'nt explain the development process involved in either.

 

I bought the game, enjoyed it, but i'd love to know a lot more about the Making Of...the A8 version.

 

Over to Tezz, if he does'nt mind asking Shahid

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What?

 

That piece of loveless adapted code with available level design of other machines , resulted in an unplayable game and even didn't use a single "special" of the Atari.

Please compare the game with other platforms. Have you ever seen the C64 version?

 

WTF?

 

You are aware that Shahid programmed ALL the versions of Chimera, Z80 and 6502 platforms when he was 18?

 

You are aware he has coded and produced DOZENS of games of over the years and this was one of his first - we all have to start somewhere!

 

Get off your high horse - it's clearly easier to be rude and insult others than actually make something!

 

sTeVE

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WTF?

 

You are aware that Shahid programmed ALL the versions of Chimera, Z80 and 6502 platforms when he was 18?

 

You are aware he has coded and produced DOZENS of games of over the years and this was one of his first - we all have to start somewhere!

And what is it to prevent some true words about it?

Actually , I saw people trying to play the A8 version, back in the days. No one wanted to see more than 4 rooms.

The slow movement , the horrible FX and also horrible control.

No one couldn't stand that for even half an hour. Game Fun ?

 

And, well , if it's about an "18" Years old , writing games on different computers. Did he grab them out of the thin air?

 

Get off your high horse - it's clearly easier to be rude and insult others than actually make something!

 

sTeVE

Not sure WHO sits on his high horse. But, if you get your 1st computer after being 18 Years old to handle it, you surely cannot write software on it before.

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WTF are you rambling about.

 

Shahid wrote ALL THE VERSIONS - you know ones that play rather well too - so forgive him for being a multi-platform talented programmer and having a stumble on one, marginal platform!

 

If you could do now what he could, 20 years ago, I would accept your criticisms, but as all you can do is whine - away with you you tiresome little moaner!

 

sTeVE

Edited by Jetboot Jack
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WTF are you rambling about.

 

Shahid wrote ALL THE VERSIONS - you know ones that play rather well too - so forgive him for being a multi-platform talented programmer and having a stumble on one, marginal platform!

Yawn. When you're younger, you learn faster. It's a human fact.

"Multi-Platform Talented" . You mean, he dreamed in the night of the code, beeped them on Tape and on the next day the games ran on the customer's computers?

 

If you could do now what he could, 20 years ago, I would accept your criticisms, but as all you can do is whine - away with you you tiresome little moaner!

 

sTeVE

You're having an interesting sight of life...

 

And: Sorry, for having my own business running that keeps me too busy to code for the A8.

Edited by emkay
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