What is the ultimate A8 game you have ever played?

[+MrFish]

5 hours ago, Keatah said:

This is so very true. It's nice to see mods and variants and changes. At the same time it's important to strictly adhere to the original so you always have a reference.

I'm not really sure if @phaeron ever intended to do more than just improve the maths.

 

I'm sure use of some sort of throttling variable(s) would allow the parts that need it to be adjusted, and smooth out a few rough edges.

 

5 hours ago, Keatah said:

Oh sure. I'm just happy to have different takes on a childhood fav.

I still think it's great. @phaeron did nice job. As I said, the speed ups are welcome in many places. IIRC, it's just the hyperspace crosshair challenge and maybe enemies moving a bit quickly in some cases (maybe in tougher missions); but overall it's still a blast (literally).

  

5 hours ago, Keatah said:

There were times I thought that vintage Amber phosphor was the pinnacle of sophistication. Playing SR on an Amber display is a real hoot.

Sounds like an interesting experience. That would take care of any color issues.

 

I can only test it out in Altirra -- but it works pretty convincingly there ("AMBER ALERT"... "AMBER ALERT"...).

 

[Keatah]

After going back and forth between the fast math version and the original version - I find I like the Hyperspace sequence better in the original version. The fast math version doesn't seem to have a tall enough final gear, but at the same time whisks you on your way faster. Accelerates faster.

 

The original version takes a little more time and seems a little more linear, and the ship's engine doesn't seem to rev as much. Spends much more time lugging its way through the final gear. Takes longer to get to top speed and into hyperspace.

 

Both get you to your destination but I like the more expansive enwrapping velocity curve of the original.

 

So many pioneering things were done right in such an early game. Such an early juncture in the industry. So it's hard to make changes.

[+cjherr]

On 3/8/2023 at 5:38 PM, MrFish said:

There's another hack that attempted to fix just the explosions. It did so by lessening the amount of particles in explosions. It works pretty well (still some slowdown, but less than before), and keeps the rest of the game where it already was. The only criticism, who doesn't like more particles in their explosions?? I think this is the hack that also changes the colors, which are ok, but some I don't like so much. No big deal, the colors could be changed back easily enough.

Can someone point me in the direction where I can find these revisions? I'd like to check them out.

 

Thank you,

-Chris

[_The Doctor__]

I found the effect cinematic and preferred the full particle display and slow mo... cool like walking away from the explosions behind you without looking back etc.

[+MrFish]

2 hours ago, cjherr said:

Can someone point me in the direction where I can find these revisions? I'd like to check them out.

@phaeron's improved maths version is here: Star Raiders - Fast Div3

 

I couldn't find the thread for the hack that reduces the number of particles for explosions (and changes some colors); so, I'm just posting my copy of it.

Star Raiders (hack).xex

 

[+cjherr]

Thank you, sir.

[oky2000]

I just remembered that my friend with the A800 used to love playing Solo Flight in his own time, I will have to go and check that out now.

[leech]

10 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I found the effect cinematic and preferred the full particle display and slow mo... cool like walking away from the explosions behind you without looking back etc.

 

[rdefabri]

On 2/28/2023 at 10:49 PM, kiwilove said:

I am surprised that no one has so far mentioned Blue Max?

 

I've been a long time lover of the coin-op Zaxxon and never liked the A8 conversion, which looks perfectly fine compared to other conversions done - Colecovision anyone?  But for Zaxxon coin-op purists it is severely lacking.  There was little there, for me to like.  I'm hard to please because graphics is my interest, but I wanted playability also.  Many years later on I had to go over to the C-64 to play the Synapse conversion and play it, and can say it's the best home conversion of Zaxxon done.  Although I haven't played others.  Sega did market their own conversion?  Couldn't find a video of it but I'll guess it'll rate poorly along Synapses' seeing that it is not easily found.

But BitD, along comes Blue Max - and it has all the hallmarks of a Zaxxon game in spades.  While graphically it is rather plain looking, but it's graphics are effectively done for functionality.  I can't fault this game much.  It's not easy to get into the city and even harder to bomb the required targets there.

Equally impressive to me, was Encounter.  I had a brief chance encounter with the programmer and was able to view the game before it was released.  It's truly immersive and gave you the realism of being in that world.

For platform fun, it was Miner 2049'er for me, getting use to it's quirky platforms and jumps required.  Donkey Kong was not fun at all for me maybe because I never played the coin-op game much at all.  Also fun was Bristles in which you can safely fall down or be knocked down.  The control was a bit quirky to get use to, but once use to it, it's more than OK to play.

 

Harvey

 

Boy was Zaxxon a disappointment.  I'm surprised no one has considered re-doing that one, it could have been far better given the A8 capabilities.

[Beeblebrox]

29 minutes ago, rdefabri said:

Boy was Zaxxon a disappointment.  I'm surprised no one has considered re-doing that one, it could have been far better given the A8 capabilities.

One of the segments of the amazing A8 game Atariblast! celebrates Zaxxon very well, although without the need to worry so much about altitude collision. Atariblast! really pushes the A8. Great showcase and a fanatastic shooter to keep coming back to.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[kiwilove]

Doing Zaxxon very well on the Atari 8-bit hardware would seem to be near an impossible task?  For some research look at the it's graphic tiles via MAME of the coin-op, and recreating the Synapse C-64 conversion may be a possible goal?  But you would want to make use of what can the Atari hardware do to assist.

While it may be possible to outdo the C-64 conversion?  There is simply a ton of work that is involved and problems aplenty to work through.

It would be a big challenge to take on but a small plus would be, there's always Super Zaxxon left to do afterwards, to make the effort worthwhile.

 

Harvey