Short review of 2022 ABBUC entries

[Beeblebrox]

6 hours ago, darwinmac said:

If your enhanced version is available as a digital download like Last Squadron eventually was, I would easily pay $15-$20 for it to support your work. 
 

I would too.

[pps]

Thanks for all the great programs and congratulations to the winners.

 

This time there are some very nice gems to find.

... again 🙂

 

A big surprise for me was @matosimi entry. I am sure, if there where more levels in sent entry, it was rated a lot higher. The top three are my top three, too.

Trax is technically another great production, but for me the game is a bit boring to play - but I never was a fan of TCE, so it might be my fault.

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by pps
Typo

[+MrFish]

9 hours ago, darwinmac said:

Break It 2022 was huge for me because it is an Arkanoid clone that can be played on NTSC. 

Here's another relatively recent, quality Arkanoid-type game that you might be interested in.

One of the cool things about it is support for a range of controllers (mice, paddles, etc.)

 

Pad 1.84

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

On 10/12/2022 at 3:00 PM, shanti77 said:

@darwinmac

To pass the level you have to destroy all statues,

 

->

then the holes are the exit.

 

->

 

 

Most Atarians (and Abbuc members) do not read descriptions, so they did not know they have to destroy the statues - and it is not easy to find out, if you do not read the docs. But without destroying the statues, one could never reach level two, three, four or five. (Afaik, there are five levels in the WIP numbered 0-4, but I only made it to level three yet.)

 

And errm, I also found the game a bit boring and repetitive, looks like I am not a fan of the chaos engine or that genre.

[Beeblebrox]

Entirely up to Shanti here of course, (and given its a work in progress there might be some surprises in the pipeline), but I guess what makes games like this more inticing are one or more of the following elements. Variety in enemies, perhaps bosses, certainly new weapons to discover and weapons upgrades. Also problem solving elements within the levels, traps and such. Finally different graphics for the levels as variety. 

 

Again Wip game and given memory constraints and what Shanti has already achieved there maybe no more space for such things. 

 

Whatever Shanti has planned it is a fantastic achievement. And judging by a fantastic track record so far (Gacek, The Last Squadron for example), this Wip game looks very promising. 

 

Edit: and of course since the last video update from Shanti we have seen weapons upgrading/levelling up implemented. See video I posted yesterday in this thread. 

Edited October 30, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[TheNameOfTheGame]

8 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

I would too.

Oh, definitely, me too.  Last Squadron is still played quite a bit on my 130XE :).

[darwinmac]

8 hours ago, MrFish said:

Here's another relatively recent, quality Arkanoid-type game that you might be interested in.

One of the cool things about it is support for a range of controllers (mice, paddles, etc.)

 

Pad 1.84

 

Thank you! I’ve downloaded it now. 
 

Bob C

[darwinmac]

6 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

 

Most Atarians (and Abbuc members) do not read descriptions, so they did not know they have to destroy the statues - and it is not easy to find out, if you do not read the docs.

It is also hard to read the docs when you cannot read German  I do not remember the short English description on the disk mentioning this. I did see this in the English translated version of #150. 
 

Unfortunately, the original German PDF appeared to have the text as an image so I could not copy the text into a translation website. 
 

Bob C

[+Fred_M]

The German PDF was fixed just a couple of hours later.... 😉

 

Personally I think Bunny Hop was the winner. I have some mixed feelings about the clones of already existing games (Break it, Pacmen evolution) and updates of existing games (like dye, Break it). I was hoping that the original games would be rated higher. I really love new and original games 🙂

 

For games that need instructions it is SO important that the developer includes a small manual when the game is sent in.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Fred_M

[snicklin]

Trax reminded me of Cannon Fodder. It made me realise that such a game may be possible on the A8.

 

 

[Beeblebrox]

Yup, Cannon Fodder would be cool and in the right hands and with mouse control it would be amazing.  Sprite multiplexing maybe? 

 

 

[darwinmac]

1 hour ago, Fred_M said:

The German PDF was fixed just a couple of hours later.... 😉

 

Personally I think Bunny Hop was the winner. 

 

For games that need instructions it is SO important that the developer includes a small manual when the game is sent in.

Because Bunny Hop needs 128k, I could only play it once or twice on my MiST. It is too bad there was not a 64k version with worse graphics. I did give it a 10 though. It was a nicely done game even though I could not play out on my XEGS. 
 

I agree completely on the instructions. Unfortunately, I did not know the German PDF was later fixed. I got a lot more out of Trax once I knew what I was supposed to do.

 

I agree with you on the original games. Break It was a big deal for me because of the NTSC compatibility. Arcadia may have been a Zuma clone, but I think it is unique to the 8-bit so I think of that a bit differently. 
 

Bob C

[+Fred_M]

18 hours ago, darwinmac said:

Because Bunny Hop needs 128k, I could only play it once or twice on my MiST. It is too bad there was not a 64k version with worse graphics. I did give it a 10 though. It was a nicely done game even though I could not play out on my XEGS. 
 

I agree completely on the instructions. Unfortunately, I did not know the German PDF was later fixed. I got a lot more out of Trax once I knew what I was supposed to do.

 

I agree with you on the original games. Break It was a big deal for me because of the NTSC compatibility. Arcadia may have been a Zuma clone, but I think it is unique to the 8-bit so I think of that a bit differently. 
 

Bob C

I completely agree 😀

 

But I am wondering, why did you not use the English PDF right away? The English and German versions were published on the website at the same time. For English speakers, the English PDF version was much better than a google/deepl translation as the original text used quite a lot of German "figure of speech" which does not translate well into English 😉

Edited October 31, 2022 by Fred_M

[darwinmac]

3 minutes ago, Fred_M said:

I completely agree 😀

 

But I am wondering, why did you not use the English PDF right away? The English and German versions were published on the website at the same time. For English speakers, the English PDF version was much better than a google/deepl translation as the original text used quite a lot of German "figure of speech" which does not translate well into English 😉

Because I used the Mag150Pre file that was created prior to the official #150 issue. That file only had a German PDF file. I agree that an English translation done by people who know both languages is far superior to an online translation.

 

I will probably replace the text files I created using DeepL with the English instructions that your team (I did not think you did all of the translation yourself) created in the paper supplement for #150.

 

For next year, it would be great if the initial file that ABBUC provides (which I very much appreciated) included the English translation of the short game instructions PDF.

 

Bob C 

[+DjayBee]

1 hour ago, darwinmac said:

For next year, it would be great if the initial file that ABBUC provides (which I very much appreciated) included the English translation of the short game instructions PDF.

We can do that.

BUT usually the disks come WITH the magazine. Due to delays in finalizing the magazine this was done differently this year and the ASC team released the disk images in advance.

[+CharlieChaplin]

In fact, the disk IS the magazine (the original statutes also state that the magazine comes on disk, one of the reasons why we must change the statute). The nice A5 booklet is "just" the paper supplement (allthough it is often seen as the magazine).

 

I am creating the Abbuc disks and errrmmm, I am not a native english speaker. From time to time I am translating german descriptions and docs on the diskette into english, but sometimes I am too lazy (e.g. when the description or docs are a bit lengthy). The texts and docs for the paper supplement are not done nor translated by me, since I am busy enough with creating the disks.

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

20 hours ago, DjayBee said:

We can do that.

 

"I would do anything for love, anything you've been dreaming of, but I just won't do that."  😁

[+Fred_M]

22 hours ago, darwinmac said:

Because I used the Mag150Pre file that was created prior to the official #150 issue. That file only had a German PDF file. I agree that an English translation done by people who know both languages is far superior to an online translation.

 

I will probably replace the text files I created using DeepL with the English instructions that your team (I did not think you did all of the translation yourself) created in the paper supplement for #150.

 

For next year, it would be great if the initial file that ABBUC provides (which I very much appreciated) included the English translation of the short game instructions PDF.

 

Bob C 

 

Ahhh, so you were not talking about the Magazine ("Paper supplement") PDFs, but about the disks 🙂 (Hold your horses Charlie😁)

 

Like the others said, normally the disks and the paper supplement are distributed the same time.

 

And yes, the English translations are done by a small team of mainly @DjayBee, @ultrasteve and myself. So we can still use volunteers! 😉

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by Fred_M

[Gunstar]

I've been too busy to actually load up ABBUC #150 disk/mag and I'm not sure if I even had the chance yet for #149! But with my seasonal business slow-down I'm going to check these out ASAP!

 

But from watching the video posted for the TRAX WIP on the previous page, I will say that I think the sound track is the best I've ever heard for a game sound track on the 8-bit! Is it in stereo too? I couldn't quite tell, even when the shot sound effects finally stopped after the person who made the video finally killed everything and stopped the constant fire that overwhelmed the sound track for me. The new dash is also fantastic, and the digital speech was a very nice surprise! Though I know I shouldn't have been surprised after Space Harrier and Bosconian...did The Last Squadron have digitized speech? It's been since last year I had a chance to play the released cart version and I just don't recall.

 

Always top notch stuff from @shanti77, he never disappoints me! Unfortunately the letter from ABBUC for voting always seems to arrive to me too late to be able to vote and send it back before the contest ends, also since I hadn't had a chance to play the entries on disk #150 yet.  With Trax being so good and only making #8, I expect to be VERY impressed with the other entries that beat it out! 

Edited November 1, 2022 by Gunstar

[shanti77]

@Gunstar Unfortunately, there is no music in the game yet, it's just a background for the video. The source of the music is in the description of the movie.