Champ Games - Galagon (aka Galaga) 2600

[eegad]

If it were around April 1, and I hadn't played Mappy, I would have definitely thought this was an April Fools joke. As it stands, I'm pretty sure this will be the #1 thing on my Christmas List 6 months from now.

[John Stamos Mullet]

Is there a demo rom of this available yet?

[+johnnywc]

Hello there!

 

Is there a demo rom of this available yet?

No, not yet. We are squashing the last remaining bugs and adding a few more bells & whistles, including a really cool and fun co-op mode where both players control a ship when you double-up after a rescue mission!

 

I anticipate a demo version being released in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

[MissCommand]

I think we have just found the secret for which games Johnny and Champs Games tackle... the very ones that we claim would be next to impossible for the 2600! Scramble and Galaga (let alone Mappy) show what still can be done, and Galaga is going to be a great addition to the ever growing library! Great job guys... I am so impressed with the quality of this game!

 

Now I contend that Space Taxi is impossible for the 2600!

[+johnnywc]

I think we have just found the secret for which games Johnny and Champs Games tackle... the very ones that we claim would be next to impossible for the 2600! Scramble and Galaga (let alone Mappy) show what still can be done, and Galaga is going to be a great addition to the ever growing library! Great job guys... I am so impressed with the quality of this game!

Thanks so much! Yeah I guess that's a part of it, the challenge, but the big draw for me is whether I have fond memories of the game.

 

Now I contend that Space Taxi is impossible for the 2600!

I must admit that I have never heard of or played Space Taxi (I didn't have a C64 back in the day; I owned an 800xl) but I just did a search on YT and watched the long play. Very cool game! Having never played the game, it does appear that a good version could definitely be done on the 2600 for at least some of the levels (looks like there are 24!). I also found a post on the AA forums where it looks like someone has already started a port too!

[+johnnywc]

As promised, here are the demo ROMs for Galaga for the 2600 (both NTSC and PAL60).

Note: If you plan on playing Galaga in Stella, the latest version with CDFJ is required (v6.0.1). Please visit the Stella website to download the latest version. A big thanks to Stephen and the Stella team for putting in the changes to support the game!

The game will also work in Stellarator and on real hardware with the Harmony or Harmony Encore.

 

This is a fully playable game with the following restrictions:

- The CHALLENGE MODE skill level (where you try to clear as many challenge stages as possible) has been disabled
- the CO-OP mode (2 players play together, each alternating control of a single ship or both controlling a ship when rescued) has been disabled
- Savekey functionality has been disabled, but high scores are still maintained for each skill level during play until the game is turned off
- The game loops back to Level 1 after Level 8 is complete.

GAME OPTIONS

From the title screen, you can select the # of players and SKILL level.

Press SELECT to toggle between 1 and 2 players. For 2 players, each player alternates after the current player's ship is destroyed.

Move the joystick left/right to change the SKILL level:

• NOVICE: Player starts with double-ship, 3 reserves. Difficulty ramp up is slower
• STANDARD: Most like the arcade. Player starts with single ship, 3 reserves
• ADVANCED: More difficult than STANDARD. Player starts with 1 ship and 2 in reserve. Enemies move faster, enemy missiles are faster, enemies take off more frequently, extra ships are added during the fly-in sequence, etc.

Move the joystick up/down to cycle through the 4 menu screens. If you do not move the joystick or start a game, the screens will cycle through after a certain amount of time.

• Title screen
• Scoring screen
• Hi scores. You can also press left/right to swap between the 3 high score tables on this screen.
• Credits

DIFFICULTY SWITCHES

The left and right difficulty switches control the firing mode for Player 1 and Player 2, respectively:

• When the difficulty switch is in the B position, Auto-fire is enabled. With auto-fire, you do not have to press and release the button to fire multiple shots.
• When the difficulty switch is in the A position, Auto-fire is disabled. In this mode, you need to release the button between shots (this is how it is in the arcade).

To start a game, either press RESET or joystick 1 button.

PLAYING THE GAME

Use the joystick to move your ship left and right to avoid incoming fire and to line up your shots to destroy the enemy. Press the fire button to fire up to 2 missiles (4 missiles when your ship is doubled). Destroy all of the enemies to advance to the next stage. The final release will have 99 levels to complete.

THE ENEMIES

• Bees (blue). These enemies fly towards in a loop pattern towards your ship when attacking. Be careful when they loop around to return back to the formation!
• Butterflies (red). These enemies fly in more of a zig-zag pattern towards your ship and wrap around the screen when they pass your ship.
• Boss (cyan/blue): These boss enemies fly alone or in packs protected by butterfly guards. The boss ships require two hits to destroy them; after one hit they turn from cyan to blue. Hitting them when they are blue will destroy them.
• Split enemies (multiple): Starting on level 4, at some point during the level a bee will flash and split into 3 other enemies! They will swoop towards you and circle your ship; destroy all 3 for bonus points!
• Captured ship (red or blue): When you ship is captured by a boss (see below), he is forced to fight for the opposition until he is freed! Although he can be destroyed, you should instead try to rescue him so that he may fight for your cause once again!

TRACTOR BEAM

Occasionally during a level, a boss ship will fly to a particular spot on the screen and emit a tractor beam attempting to capture your ship! If your ship is captured in the tractor beam, it will turn red (or blue for player 2) and join the enemy! When he takes off from formation, shoot his captor to free him and double up your ship (and double your fire power!). Be careful not to shoot the captured ship though! With double fire, your two ships will each fire a missile at the same time (up to 2 each).

Also, if you do not have any reserve ships and your current ship is captured, there will be no one left to perform the rescue and your game will end. Be aware that if you are caught in the tractor beam, you can still fire missiles and may be able to shoot the boss ship and escape from the tractor beam as a last ditch effort.

If you shoot the captured ship's boss ship while in formation, eventually the captured ship will attack solo; you should avoid shooting him and he will escape the level and return in the next stage (during fly-in, so be careful not to shoot him there either!) where you will get another chance to perform the rescue.

CHALLENGE STAGES

Starting on level 3 and every 4th level after that is a CHALLENGE STAGE. In this stage, the enemies do not fire and your ship cannot be destroyed. The object is to shoot as many ships as possible (up to 40) to increase your score. Shooting all 40 will result in a 10,000 point bonus.

SCORING

• Bee: 50 points in formation, 100 points in flight
• Butterfly: 80 points in formation, 160 points in flight
• Boss: 150 points in formation. In flight: 400 points with no guards, 800 points with 1 guard, 1600 points with 2 guards
• Shooting all 3 'split' enemies: 1000 - 3000 points
• Shooting all 8 enemies during a wave of the challenge stage: 1000 - 3000 points
• Shooting all 40 enemies during a challenge stage: 10,000 points

An extra ship is awarded at 20,000 points, 70,000 points, and every 70,000 points thereafter

CONSOLE SWITCHES

During a game the console switches do the following:

• RESET will reset the game with the current skill/# of players/options
• SELECT will end the current game and return to the title screen
• COLOR/BW (PAUSE on a 7800) will pause the game; press or flip the switch again or press the joystick button to resume.
• LEFT/RIGHT DIFFICULTY: enable/ disable auto-fire player 1 and player 2, respectively (A = disable, B = enable)

TWO PLAYER

In two player mode, player 2's ship will have a blue trim (player 1 trim is red) and player 2's score will be light blue (player 1 score color is white). Furthermore, when your ship is captured, player 1's captured ship is RED and player 2's captured ship is BLUE.

GAME OVER

When all a player's ships are destroyed and there are no reserve, GAME OVER will be displayed followed by the shooting ratio results. This includes the # of shots taken, # of hits and the hit ratio. Note that when you have double fire power, firing two simultaneous shots only counts as 1 shot taken since since both missiles can only hit one target (the other missile is disabled once one of the missiles hits a target).

HIGH SCORE

If the current player achieves a high score for the current skill level, the high score entry screen is displayed. Use the joystick to enter up to 3 initials. Move the joystick up/down to change the current initial (blinking) and press the button to move to the next initial. Move left/right to change the initial to update. Once completed, press the button after entering in the 3rd initial to register your name and be added to the list of GALACTIC HEROS!

Savekey support has been disabled for this demo.

CREDITS

Special thanks to Nathan Strum for all of his hard work the last few weeks, even as he was putting in 60 hour weeks at work! His amazing work on the graphics and discussions on game design really inspired me to move forward with this project and enabled us to put the game together as quickly as we did. He also was the sole game tester and found many bugs (some that wouldn't seem to go away!) so thanks again Nathan!

Also special thanks to Ross Keenum for his amazing sounds and music! Ross and I hadn't met or spoke before I reached out to him a month ago and he was very gracious in providing me with all the help I needed to get the music and sounds put into the game very quickly. He even spent some extra time making a few extra music and sound fx in short order!. Thanks Ross!

Additional thanks for the extensive testing done by Steve Ramirez, Glenn (aka GRay Defender) and James (& Tayna) over at ZeroPage Homebrew, as well as Darrell Spice Jr., TJ, Dennis Debro and Mike Haas for additional testing and feedback. I hope I didn't miss anyone!


RELEASE PLANS

Right now the game is about 99% complete. Currently, we are targeting a release for sometime in late 2019 (I need to confirm with Al), possibly the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (October). Dave Dries has graciously signed on to do the box, manual, and label - thanks Dave! He has done amazing work on numerous AA projects, including Champ Games' own Scramble and the upcoming Wizard of Wor Arcade.

Have fun!
John

galaga_demo_NTSC.bin
galaga_demo_PAL60.bin

Edited June 7, 2019 by johnnywc

[StephenJ]

Another MUST-HAVE for my cartridge collection.

 

Keep'm comin' John!!

 

Stephen

[+FujiSkunk]

[Dan Iacovelli]

will add to my harmony cart and will be cool to show at Video Game summit.

[DVDfever]

Sweet! Just posted some gameplay up here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZSFMOFXDyQ

[iesposta]

Sweet! Just posted some gameplay up here

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZSFMOFXDyQ

 

The colors are wrong.

Are you playing PAL on NTSC or the NTSC ROM on PAL?

[Dan Iacovelli]

 

The colors are wrong.

Are you playing PAL on NTSC or the NTSC ROM on PAL?

looks like pal version

[DVDfever]

 

The colors are wrong.

Are you playing PAL on NTSC or the NTSC ROM on PAL?

 

I'm playing the PAL version. Didn't realise the colours were wrong. I just set it running in Stella and played the game. I'll have another crack at it and check the PAL/NTSC setting then.

[Vic George 2K3]

Too bad I couldn't get it to work on my Android 2600 app.

[Keatah]

Slick!

[Brian O]

AWESOME

[Prizrak]

Can't wait to play it on my harmony, my phones emulator doesn't do it justice.

[+TrekMD]

Awesome is the word!

[+DrVenkman]

Just tried it on my Harmony Cart - I have three words:

UH. MAZE. BALLS! This is a definite-buy, kids.

[+Omegamatrix]

This is top notch. This will be one of my favorite 2600 games. Well done!

[atarilovesyou]

Well I just can't wait to get this game!!!...and to pick up some choice others from the AA store while I'm at it. This version of Galaga is just amazing, well done to all involved!

[+sramirez2008]

Sounds like I need to go to PRGE this year!

[+grafixbmp]

Does anyone notice if the big dipper and Orion are in the starfield like the arcade? I've tried and thought I saw the dipper once.

Edited June 8, 2019 by grafixbmp

[Rom Hunter]

Incredible.

Best Galaga Arcade conversion by far, John.

[Mikebloke]

Looks amazing, no luck for me with my uno cart though, but a nice achievement.