Lost Dragon Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Basically what good is a top notch product, if people your trying to sell it too all own other machines? The issue with the A8 was not just lack of exposure, but Atari's policy of pricing, releasing various models of hardware (why buy an Atari Micro now when in 6 months or so they'll annouce a newer version, more Ram etc etc), countless factors, which all meant the C64/Spectrum and CPC steamrolled in a got the market share and support from software houses the A8 did'nt. I do agree at times it would of been 'better' to let the A8 range 'die' (if your not going to support it properly yourself, why re-package it?) when the 65XE etc were released and Atari were putting 2-page ads in likes of ACE showcasing the games, it was looking a little old and weary and so were the games.The big 3 had THE games by then people like myself wanted. As i said before, it was'nt JUST Firebird that gave smaller support to the A8, look at Hewson, Ocean etc etc, the A8 games simply were not there, ditto System 3.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Blame more games like Speed King Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Blame more games like Speed King The game looks on all systems "not so good" Only on the Speccy it makes graphically sense, btw. , and the Atari version plays better than it looks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Am I the only one who really liked the original Chimera on the a8? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 I liked it. :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 The game looks on all systems "not so good" Only on the Speccy it makes graphically sense, btw. , and the Atari version plays better than it looks. we are talking about this? http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2984 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 we are talking about this? http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2984 Yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormtrooper of Death Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 I also liked Chimera. I still compare Chimera with Molecule Man. Both in a kinda labyrinth, searching for an exit and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 (edited) Best game of that genre (original 80's) is "Head over Heels" on the A8. Several isometric moving objects with correct masking... different height objects and so on... Edited February 19, 2015 by emkay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmilo Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Am I the only one who really liked the original Chimera on the a8? No As it was one of rare games of that type when it came out in '85 its 'imperfection' didn't matter much. Best game of that genre (original 80's) is "Head over Heels" on the A8. Several isometric moving objects with correct masking... different height objects and so on... Agreed. Compared to two years older Chimera It's obvious what all coders learned from each other. Jon Ritman wrote Batman in '86, learned a lot and then made HoH. One of the best games ever imho. Would be cool to see more games like that on Atari. Maybe something like HoH but with more colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 He also had a job convincing Firebird to publish the A8 version at all. I'm not going to name drop - but I have and do talk to most of the people involved in UK games development form the 80's onwards quite regularly. I knew the publishing team at BT (Firebird, Railbird etc) - there was NO money in making A8 games, at £1.99 or £9.99 - they tried a few and that was their conclusion. I worked with them much later (Microprose) - so their recollections were a few years old, but I do not doubt what they said. It was the SAME story at every UK publisher I ever met, and I have asked a few both back in the day and in more recent years over a beer at various industry events. There was just not enough "market" to justify the investment - remember after you have made the software, you have to test it, master and duplicate it, package it and distribute it - the costs of making a game are usually less that 1/4 of the cost to retail - which is typically 30/35% less that the retail price - you do the maths on a £1.99 game! sTeVE 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Yup, went to all the trade shows and asked a million times if people were going to do 8bit Atari stuff and it was either a polite NO or "we may look at it" and never did... I was stunned when I did see a few budget titles ported to the 8 bit as the overall impression was that no one was interested. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Is anyone playing the game?! We'll I am and it's very good indeed. I've reached about the 800 point mark, my map is starting to take shape. Once when I went into the pause mode there was only the background bars though it still exited ok. If reset would reboot that would be nice If it showed the high score somewhere too Perhaps the game could be improved by having 3 lives so that you don't have to restart each time - this way you still get the superb scream but the game would be less frustrating as it's all trial and error - especially when you can't see the items that kill you sometimes I liked the original 'budget' game; but yes it was slow. The pressure of the slow movement when you were low on resources made it tense. The new version is superbly playable you seem to have plenty of time which makes the exploring/puzzle side of it more enjoyable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 No As it was one of rare games of that type when it came out in '85 its 'imperfection' didn't matter much. Agreed. Compared to two years older Chimera It's obvious what all coders learned from each other. Jon Ritman wrote Batman in '86, learned a lot and then made HoH. One of the best games ever imho. But there is some issue with the Atari itself. In 1985 the 800 was officially supported by Atari. In 1989 the Atari was declared dead. Alien 8 is pre Chimera. Would be cool to see more games like that on Atari. Maybe something like HoH but with more colors. Would be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Would be cool to see more games like that on Atari. Maybe something like HoH but with more colors. Airball? http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=1342 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmilo Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Airball? http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=1342 Yeah, that's a good example. Reminds me of Amiga's Cadaver in some strange way... My bet is something with even more colors can be made, but will have to wait a project or two to be finished first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Back in the mid eighties I did wish that one or two games from rival systems were available on the A8, games like Atic Atac and Knightlore etc-but when I seen games like Fractalus, Eidolon, Mercenary, Dropzone and Bounty Bob I came to realise that certain games were obviously better for certain systems. I don't remember casting too many envious glances at ZX or CBM software as A8 software availability where I lived was actually pretty good and the quality was usually of a high standard. It was a shame that very few UK developers put much effort into the machine and most who did were piss poor rush jobs. P.S-Chimera looks damn fine!!!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 Is anyone playing the game?! We'll I am and it's very good indeed. I've reached about the 800 point mark, my map is starting to take shape. Once when I went into the pause mode there was only the background bars though it still exited ok. If reset would reboot that would be nice If it showed the high score somewhere too Perhaps the game could be improved by having 3 lives so that you don't have to restart each time - this way you still get the superb scream but the game would be less frustrating as it's all trial and error - especially when you can't see the items that kill you sometimes I liked the original 'budget' game; but yes it was slow. The pressure of the slow movement when you were low on resources made it tense. The new version is superbly playable you seem to have plenty of time which makes the exploring/puzzle side of it more enjoyable. Thanks, glad to hear you're working your way through the game I guess Shahid decided against multiple lives or continues in his design so that the game has more of a lasting appeal to be replayed to work out the solution with an element of memory required. I considered adding a map feature to the game but I decided against adding new things that weren't in the original versions. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 I'm not going to name drop - but I have and do talk to most of the people involved in UK games development form the 80's onwards quite regularly. I knew the publishing team at BT (Firebird, Railbird etc) - there was NO money in making A8 games, at £1.99 or £9.99 - they tried a few and that was their conclusion. I worked with them much later (Microprose) - so their recollections were a few years old, but I do not doubt what they said. It was the SAME story at every UK publisher I ever met, and I have asked a few both back in the day and in more recent years over a beer at various industry events. There was just not enough "market" to justify the investment - remember after you have made the software, you have to test it, master and duplicate it, package it and distribute it - the costs of making a game are usually less that 1/4 of the cost to retail - which is typically 30/35% less that the retail price - you do the maths on a £1.99 game! sTeVE Yea it was a sad state with the lack of market here negating any opportunity for software houses. I recall reading an interview with Zeppelin Games where they mentioned that one of their A8 titles had sold only one copy. It was a shame for all involved with this platform. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 Best game of that genre (original 80's) is "Head over Heels" on the A8. Several isometric moving objects with correct masking... different height objects and so on... Head over Heels was excellent. Many agree that it's the best of the iso games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 It was probably only the lack of time for coding it. As it was one of rare 3d-iso games on Atari (and only a quick port) it can only be described as honest effort... Doing it on CPC with fast z80 sprite routines and using C64 sprites is much, much easier than doing iso-3d-sprite overlapping with masking on A8. Doing it with multicolored pm's turned out to be even more complex. Just figuring correct lookup tables, shifts and draw order took ages.... Tezz did awesome job on improving it. My hat is off for that gentleman... Thanks mate! Yeah, that's a good example. Reminds me of Amiga's Cadaver in some strange way... My bet is something with even more colors can be made, but will have to wait a project or two to be finished first I used to like Airball on the ST. Definately something with more colours, enemies and puzzles can be made I'd also like to design an iso game from scratch after getting the next couple of projects completed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 In North America the Spectrum was not really a player, so we didn't have "isometric game envy". I just don't recall anyone wanting to play those types of games, or even missing them. The few I did see on the A8 didn't do much for me. Amaroute being the main one I remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matosimi Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 wonderful modification! game is super fast now... i've played it like 10 times today. i have to say that dead tone (after scream) is soooo annoying... i'm also not fan of music in title screen, but thats just my opinion. game is nicely playable and looks much better than original, good work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 wonderful modification! game is super fast now... i've played it like 10 times today. i have to say that dead tone (after scream) is soooo annoying... i'm also not fan of music in title screen, but thats just my opinion. game is nicely playable and looks much better than original, good work The music is kinda good but very strange - describe it in one word someone?! I'm getting on pretty well with the game made it to over 1700 points today. There seems to be a bug somewhere as I've had a lock-up again - this time I was putting bread in toaster #3 - both times screen freezes browny/yellow with white noise. (130XE PAL 1050 mydos/mypicodos) p.s. I'm writing a review of Chimera+ for a future pro© magazine - did you choose to negate the food/drink shortages or was this incidental from the faster movement. (It's much better now of course). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 I'm getting on pretty well with the game made it to over 1700 points today. Great, glad to hear you are continuing to progress in the game There seems to be a bug somewhere as I've had a lock-up again - this time I was putting bread in toaster #3 - both times screen freezes browny/yellow with white noise. (130XE PAL 1050 mydos/mypicodos) I'll have to get my XE hooked up to play through the game and check this out. There was a pre-existing issue with the status messages that caused problems overwriting ram which I addressed so I'll look into that incase I've overlooked something. p.s. I'm writing a review of Chimera+ for a future pro© magazine - did you choose to negate the food/drink shortages or was this incidental from the faster movement. (It's much better now of course). That's great, I'll look forward to reading your review I considered the speed of the decrease of food and water and decided to roughly match the original game making it less of an issue due to the faster pace so that the game is more enjoyable to play through. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.