HSC14 Round 10: New Games & Season Catch-up

[devwebcl]

Tried SpyCat but I don't really like this type of game so didn't get anywhere. Excel Mag #3 has a guide/review and #4 has the map.

 

Had another go on E-Type but still don't like this either - can't see anything with the car on and not much better without. OK it was released late 2015!

 

Hero 2016 - I can't see any difference except perhaps(?) the display panel which I like less than the original.

 

 

Carlsson has been ploughing through the games and there are a couple he has listed that I will play, I'm also going to try the other original Spelunker to see if I can beat it and if there are any other differences.

 

Hero 2016 is http://manillismo.blogspot.cl/2016/09/hero-improvements.html

?

[devwebcl]

is there an English version of Laura ?

[carlsson]

I found Laura to be quite playable even without understanding the instructions. Of course I might have missed out on some finer details that would enhance the gameplay further if I understood Polish.

 

Anyway, here is another batch of games that I have tried:

 

Podskoczek - 28 pts

Nice jumping game, reminds me a little of Splatform but also other games of similar style. Trying to land on as many platforms as possible increases your score, compared to skipping past platforms that are very close to eachother. I didn't quite understand how to get even further, but I might try some more.

 

I realized that Rain of Terror requires paddles and since I don't own a set of those, I didn't try it (might try in Altirra later on, though I'm not really a fan of proper game playing in emulators, I use them more for testing purposes).

 

Ratcatcher - 200 pts

I have never heard of this Atari 5200 game before, and to be honest, three minutes of play time was not enough to really get me acquainted with it. I get a bit of Elevator Action feeling with a bit of Popeye, but probably this game stands on its own once you get to like it.

 

Saboteur - $1500

This is a game I only briefly played on the C64, dismissing it as a dull ZX Spectrum port. Although I only played three rounds this time, it might be the longest playtime I ever had on this game. I was so eager pressing the fire button that I missed the opportunity to take a screenshot. Earlier in this round, I have skipped a few direct ports in favor of the new homebrews, this was an exception.

 

Sarepska - no particular score

Another two player game, which I'm sure is great if you have a friend over or at a party. Alone I only was able to figure out what it is about, not really feel the thrills.

 

Skyscraper - 1893 pts, 421 lines

Nice game in the genre of falling lines. I wouldn't sort it as a Tetris or Columns game, but it defintely is in the neighbourhood. I don't know if the game is programmed to help you regain width of the skyscraper at certain times, as the "expand" block would arrive nearly a dozen times in a row every now and then, giving you the chance to grow it back. Eventually I made so many mistakes that I got a game over anyway.

 

Snowplow - 4910 pts

This is supposedly a game from 1988 with new maps in 2016. I'm not sure if it counts, but it seems only to have one level anyway as I got back to the title screen after clearing the level with snowplows and fuel left. Perhaps it is selectable from the starting screen, I never checked? Not sure if it counts as a recent homebrew if it just a map hack, but it was listed on the site as a new game for 2017.

 

That brings me to about 10 more games to try, before I focus on replaying those I liked.

[Sikor]

O.k. I had few minutes, so...

(my scores was terrible, but always... ;P)

Bosconian - super game for real atari. On emulator i played hard, but my score is too bad... (heh, bad screenshot... I had anly 27000+...). I try it more, if I'll have time to play...

Blowsub - nice and easy game. I like it...

Nice little game.

NYD 2016 Nessie - don't play it! I wrote this game for new year disc - it is short, simply and bored, but i try, that i can wrote "nessie" like as in "Bajtek" magazine without original code I forgot about this game...

Edited June 14, 2017 by Sikor

[+therealbountybob]

Carlsson - I did the Snowplow "NYD" version it has 3 boards link on signature below:

 

Hero2016 thanks devwebcl - OK I do not like the changes

 

I found Laura ok but did get stuck at one point, will play it again soon.

 

Played original Spelunker, only got to 3rd stage but did notice a couple more sound changes and possibly the movement across the ropes was improved in the later release

 

SFO 19,660 Star Cadet Class 1 A few more tweaks still... I'm now working on them

[erichenneke]

Space Fortress Omega...

 

20,370 "Galactic Hitchhiker Class 6"

 

 

I like the scrolling play field and the "puzzle/maze" nature of having to pick your path as you progress.

Initially I didn't play it a lot because I just kept running into the walls in front of me and seemed like no use. But them I realized the key is the ability to slow down almost to a complete halt and make your drastic maneuvers at very slow speeds. Now I am compelled to dig deeper into this game and see where it goes to.

 

 

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hmm,

 

do not want to quote the whole text slx wrote, so just a small note:

"Cyctriks is a circular version of Tetris the graphics of which must have been as challenging to the programmer as they are to me while playing. It is very sting with points, I never made it past one point for one completed layer around the core. Is it just me, is it caused by the title screen, or does the center of the screen resemble an essential part of human infant nutrition?"

 

Well, Cyctriks is translated as Tits Tetris, so maybe you now know what you are playing on (or trying to recreate) - a woman`s tit. The thing you see in the middle is a nibble... funny, isn't it ? In Germany this would mean, that the game is not suitable for children, but we are all adults now, aren't we? Except the programmers maybe...

[McKong]

Snookie 12280

[McKong]

Blowsub - 59000 Nice looking game. A bit too easy maybe. Perhaps it would be better with 'lives' instead of 'extended play'?

[McKong]

Flak 29800

 

Played this again, really like it. Made it through the 1st phase - 43800

Edited June 16, 2017 by McKong

[McKong]

Spare Change 217200 level 6

[carlsson]

Ok, I played Snowplow again and pressed Start after each level. It tries to load the next level, but either my SIO2SD is not compatible, or the image file is corrupt because it loads a level that consists of about ten squares of straight road, then you're finished. This is repeated for every level, which means after the first, original level the game becomes trivial. Probably something has gone wrong at my end, so no reason to try to post any additional scores.

 

Edit: Here is another round of games I've tried. Some of them won't start, I don't know if the files I downloaded are faulty, if it is another SIO2SD issue, if it is my PAL 130XE or something else at fault. I might try one or two in Altirra eventually, but I think I've tried enough games when it comes to bonus points (as I'm outside top 5 prior to this round).

 

Spycat - 200 pts

I'm not familiar with this game since before. My first association was with the cartoon Andy Capp, on which there once was a computer game. From what I could tell, this is not really my type of game, but it looks and plays nice. The instructions suggested the controls are more complicated than they appear to be.

 

The Monk - killed 6 monsters in one go

I will admit I haven't looked up any sort of instructions about this game so I may have misjudged what it is about. It doesn't seem to have any scoring, or perhaps you get a score when you clear all the monsters (it doesn't say how many there are). Big, bright graphics using a wide range of different hues which is unlike what I'm used to see in Atari 8-bit games. Bonus points for randomly generated map on every game.

 

Time Pilot - 35400 pts, level 3

While I've played various versions of this game before, I didn't remember the particular type of steering. Also regarding the viewport, it isn't that small or low resolution. Many other ports used the right hand side for the score display, so the play area isn't that much more zoomed out IIRC. Sometimes a small graphic glitch right at the start, but it seems to play well. The high score table however is entirely botched up in this version, which is a shame. At least two of the homebrews I've tried had corrupted high score routines and many don't display score at all. How hard can it be to remember the highest score and compare with the current?

 

Twin Cars - 76 pts

Nice one that uses left and right on two joysticks to dodge objects on two parallel lanes. I used my Starplex combined with a Tac-2, for this purpose it worked well. I suppose you could be two players in a cooperative mode as well.

 

Udders - 23 tanks

Bah.. what a sexist game! I almost get upset by playing it and start to get stereotype thoughts if the Polish in general have this sexist approach to life. My dear Cowthilde character cries in a corner, she doesn't want her udders pulled hard. Also I don't know if the game is supposed to be possible to finish, or if you just play until one cow dies from having too much milk. Yes, I am serious about my dislike!

 

Warsaw City+ - 82900 pts

Another of those Gumshoe / Who Dares Wins / whatever games, this I understand is a modified version of an earlier game. When you finish two games within 9 minutes and reached to level 10 and 16 in that amount of play, it suggests the game is short and shallow. Not displaying the score after the game is finished is another weakness.

 

Wytyczne rybne - finished one fish

This is a memory type game, where you get to see four slices of a fish for a few seconds, then are supposed to locate those slices again and place them at the right position. You get three lives. Quite hard in the beginning before you have memorized the different types of fish slices available. Fun graphics makes it stand out, but I would have wanted a bit more like Mastermind gameplay, in which that you got to know how many or even which parts you got wrong and a couple attempts on the same fish before you start over.

 

Zombie Attack - cured 4 people before glitches

Yet again I'm not sure if it is my fault or the programmer, but after a while I entered some kind of building to get statistics. Once I got out of the building, most of the graphics were garbled, making the game very hard to play and not pretty. As I wasn't super into it before as well, I decided to move on to the next game.

 

Zoo Food - finished the game

This is a puzzle game. At first I thought it was Memory but you should combine each animal with the type of food it would eat. Since you don't know which types of animals are behind the bricks, you lose lives right away just by trying out combinations. Also it turns out this is some kind of demo that only has one level, so even if you manage to clear it, there is nothing more to it. The idea and implementation are nice, but I would think a lot of gameplay details are missing to make it a worthwhile game. Then again I haven't looked up if a fuller version is under development or something.

Edited June 15, 2017 by carlsson

[Sikor]

Zoo Food - finished the game

This is a puzzle game. At first I thought it was Memory but you should combine each animal with the type of food it would eat. Since you don't know which types of animals are behind the bricks, you lose lives right away just by trying out combinations. Also it turns out this is some kind of demo that only has one level, so even if you manage to clear it, there is nothing more to it. The idea and implementation are nice, but I would think a lot of gameplay details are missing to make it a worthwhile game. Then again I haven't looked up if a fuller version is under development or something.

zoo-food.jpg

Nice too see, that ths game was nice for someone. I wrote it with Miker on Grawitacja Game Jam in 48 hours (or few less, I don't remember now). Our big problems was gfx - I wrote all code, Miker done music and gfx, but no one of us are gfx-man

[+therealbountybob]

Ha someone played my game... thanks Eric I played the abbuc version again after months of testing the "final" version, was a bit strange and probably easier overall ,49,950 level 2 The imminent final version is hopefully going to blow everyones' socks of

 

I too have been re-visiting the abbuc games and I stick by Rain of Terror easily being the best one (Dye was good too). Dimos Dungon Level 3, Name that Game needs some sort of skip feature to be more fun, Atascii Blaster 1,660, Get Up 808. Skyscraper 611/150 long after I lost the will to continue!

 

Time Pilot 829,000 made it through again gets a bit boring after a while, not sure if there is more to be done on this one. Bosconian sort of similar mechanics but seems to have more potential - completed the newly added 4th level but then it's back to level 1 so stopped 49,900

 

We have a week to go, looks like Carlsson will be earning an Atari Medal

Zombie attack is NTSC only (it does 1/2 work on PAL)

 

I'll put the poll on tomorrow

Edited June 22, 2017 by therealbountybob

[McKong]

Skyscrapper 224 99. nice looking game. Simple and yet I seem to be crap at it!

 

Had to play again. Got the hang of it retired at 1000 points 150 metres

[+therealbountybob]

Skyscrapper 224 99. nice looking game. Simple and yet I seem to be crap at it!

 

Had to play again. Got the hang of it retired at 1000 points 150 metres

Did anything else happen, there were meant to be some secret things? I just found it way too easy / uninteresting

[+therealbountybob]

Post #2 has the TABLES , with 1 week to go there's still more points in them there Atari hills

 

Round 11 Pre-Poll "Battle of the Classics" NOW OPEN

[carlsson]

I played Time Pilot again and got one level further, ending at 40300 pts. When you guys report the scores, is it the real score or the one displayed in the high score table with an extra trailing zero? I mean the game can't mean to multiply your final score by 10 just by dying.

 

I also played ANTIC Picross II. I don't care much for Suduko, Nonogram and other types of puzzles where you are supposed to position numbers or characters at the right positions. At first I used brute force, losing a lot of penalty time but then I tried to play a little more properly. I found the symbols used for hit or miss were a bit too alike and in particular the miss are too large, so you can't really make out what the pattern might be and use that as a guide.

 

Edit: I also had another attempt at 1K ATASCII Blaster and reached 2000 pts. The key is to stay at the top (or perhaps bottom) as most characters only have a few pixels to blast at the top and bottom ends compared to the middle. A bit of luck is required too. Good game, slightly less speed up and perhaps some bonus items or at least bonus points for blasting an entire character would improve it further.

Edited June 18, 2017 by carlsson

[McKong]

Did anything else happen, there were meant to be some secret things? I just found it way too easy / uninteresting

The only thing I saw was the 'expander' block. Which increases the width of the tower by one unit.

 

It definitely needs something else to hold the interest

[+therealbountybob]

I played Time Pilot again and got one level further, ending at 40300 pts. When you guys report the scores, is it the real score or the one displayed in the high score table with an extra trailing zero? I mean the game can't mean to multiply your final score by 10 just by dying.

...

I think they've just not shown the 0 on the score in game - not to worry as like Bosconian these two are still works in progress and need to have more levels and be more challenging. TP Keep of the clouds and you can survive better!

 

As we're in the final week we're looking out for games that might be good enough for future HSC play. I think Podskoczek (the jumping platforms one) is ideal for a bonus game and perhaps Get-Up also. Main games: Bosconian when it's finished, Rain of Terror we've played ...

[McKong]

Just tried Dino's Dungeon for the first time. Got to level 3. Would be happy to play this at some point as a main game in HSC.

I would perhaps have preferred it if the game had finite lives but otherwise looks good and seems to play well.

 

Couldn't get Bosconian to load on my 800xl or Altirra, not sure why

[shanti77]

You must have 128kB Ram to play Bosconian.

[McKong]

Ah thanks, will try again tomorrow

[+therealbountybob]

Also played Black Rescue nice concept, great music and title screen and wave effects. I hope this is still in development fandal's site says "v04" so fingers crossed. As it stands you can just wait for the chopper to pass but better not to and jump over it or go under it, a jumping rescue boat would have been good for the guys in the film I watched last night "The Cruel Sea", great film by the way :thumbsup:

 

 

Someone here has spotted something new and very good, perhaps I missed it or no one has realised it existed (and no it's not my game S.F.O. though I'm actually play testing it properly so it's nearly done)

 

Round 11 "Battle of the Classics" Poll OPEN

[McKong]

Zoo Food - Managed to match 2 animals to there food. Found it a bit difficult to recognise what some of the animals and items of food were! 3/10

Zombie Attack - 16 confirmed kills! This one needs some work. It's got potential though. I like the different weapone options. Although it seems you can only shoot in certail directions with some? It would be better if you could see the shots. 3/10

Sabateur - 1600 ran around in circles for a while not really sure what i was doing. Perhaps I should read the instructions. Not really a fan of the graphics, I'm guessing from the look of it it's a Spectrum port? 6/10

Rat Catcher - 300. Worked out how to move between levels and caught some rats. Not bad... 4/10

Grim Ritual - 300 Killed some ghost with the green light. No idea what's going on otherwise! 2/10

Grav Zoo - The littles flying thing is too damn difficult to control. I got to the little dude up in the tree but not sure whether I killed him or rescued him! 4/10

Gun Fright - Explored the town a bit. Got into a gun fight with a dude, not sure whether I one or lost! Looks like a good game. 7/10

Get Up - level 10 682. My favourite of the ones I played so far today. It seems to ramp up the difficulty nicely and you don't score anything if you're too careful! 7/10

E-Type - Impressive title screen, shame about the in play graphics. Seems to play well though 5/10

Vox Regis - No idea!

Time Pilot - Made it to the 70s 27500. Really like this one, I think it's arcade port right? Not one I played at the arcades. 8/10

Crazy Cat - Collected 50 rings. Found it hard to control at first but after playing for a while it gets easier 5/10

Black Rescue - 1300. Has got potential. I like the split screen and the water reminds me of Wavy Navy. Seems a bit too easy though and didn't seem to ramp up the difficulty 5/10

Edited June 23, 2017 by McKong