HSC20 Round 5: Dawn Raider & Warhawk

[McKong]

Dawn Raider 10500

[McKong]

War Hawk 401423

[AtariSphinx]

Dawn Raider - 830

WarHawk (manual fire): 441,213

 

Dawn Raider is tough!

 

[dinky2008]

Dawn raider 305

 

[Marius]

1150 Dawn Raider

 

I really don't understand how you can be so positive about this game @therealbountybob? The game is so sensitive in controls and the chances to die are too big too my taste.

[McKong]

1 hour ago, Marius said:

1150 Dawn Raider

 

I really don't understand how you can be so positive about this game @therealbountybob? The game is so sensitive in controls and the chances to die are too big too my taste.

I really like it too, but I don't particularly like WarHawk, each to their own I suppose

[Sikor]

Dawn Raider: 1125 1140

Warhawk: 145883

Edited March 22 by Sikor
change score

[+therealbountybob]

Stick with Dawn Raider - I like it as it's fairly precise, you can improve as you play, not too many difficult bits, the down for bombing is a nice touch. The game level is fairly short is the only real downside, but more features on each level, it's addictive as you know you can do better. Warhawk though well done is really a test of endurance (both hand and joystick)

 

ok Poll time

 

 

[Sikor]

Dawn raider: 1210

[AtariSphinx]

Dawn Raider: 1520

[MichaG]

Dawn Raider: 1,080

 

Warhawk: 102,551

I don't like it. Technicaly, it's reay cool, but not realy playable...

[Marius]

On 3/22/2023 at 8:52 PM, McKong said:

I really like it too, but I don't particularly like WarHawk, each to their own I suppose

Of course! My question was not meant to say something about the person who likes the game of course, and people are -OF COURSE- free to like what they want, that was not even the subject of my comment.

 

I love games on Atari 8bit, but in very general I could devide games in two categories. The games where one clearly dies of human fault during the game, and the games where you die because the gamelay isn't as smooth or too sensitive for losing a life (think of the problems in the 2600 E.T. game is an example of such a category)

 

The fact that people get much higher scores than my daughter and I get in this game, is definitely some proof that the problem is with us and not particularly with the game. Obviously it has some learning curve. But still, there are quite a lot very good games around where managing to get a grip on the controls (as a player) develops rather well without explicitly taking care of thinking or developing these skills as a game player. In Dawn Raider the fact that the game gives instruction after losing a life to find a safe spot suggests to me that the coder simply had no room left in the code (or lacked the skill?) Or perhaps had another reason to do this, but it is not a very pretty solution either (to my taste). It's like you have to do something that the game should take care of. And I feel the same about the controls in this game. When mastering the controls in a game is something you like, then I totally agree that this could be a fun game. But for me it is like I am focusing not on the game at all, but all I do is preventing to make a mistake and preventing myself for getting some frustration from the controls.

 

I think this is an interesting subject in general. And I am very aware that it is just my opinion, not facts.

 

There are quite some games with a somehow slightly stubborn control. For instance: I love Donkey Kong really a lot, but the control to get on the stairs is -especially for beginners- not very smooth. In The Goonies same thing. I love that game sooooo much. But only because as a kid I have invested seriously hundreds of not thousands hours of time to master the controls. I forgot that. But now when I see a novice player struggling with these controls again I dare to say that the controls are slightly "picky" .. coded too sensitive, or perhaps simply not coded in the best possible way.

 

It is a matter of taste, yes. But I can appreciate it when the controls are so well coded that I simply don't think about the controls and simply can focus on the game.

 

And yes: that endless shooting in Warhawk is annoying as well. It is now more a challenge who has the best wrist and hand haha. At the end of Warhawk I need 10 minutes or more before my hand finally wants to function again haha. That is also pretty ehm... odd.

Edited March 25 by Marius

[jk40001]

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I posted a score here.. My actual hardware is still in the box. So for now some score from the emulator at least.

 

Dawn Raider 1360
Warhawk 259141

Edited March 26 by jk40001

[carlsson]

I understand why TRBB enjoys Dawn Raider. It reminds me a lot of his own games - very tough and small margins. Personally I spent over an hour last evening, and wasn't even close to my first score I posted before. I must've had beginner's luck even if the score isn't that high.

[rdrunner]

Dawn Raider is definitely a flawed game, but I've played worse.  I will say that I never expected to see another game where bullets randomly just fail to destroy targets like in The Tail of Beta Lyrae.  It's a bit less tolerable here since Dawn Raider has limited ammo.

 

Warhawk has been fun though (minus the hand cramps of course).

[graywest]

Warhawk (with autofire): 209,013

Are we still doing an autofire bonus table? I used a Sega joystick with variable autofire for this one. It feels like cheating, but at least my hand is not cramping.  

 

I'm really enjoying Dawn Raider actually, but I'm in the same boat as @carlsson: despite many plays, I'm unable to beat my first score. I've resolved to get past the first level before we finish this round, though!

[carlsson]

Warhawk - 281813 pts (manual fire)

No improvement on Dawn Raider, despite many attempts.

[jk40001]

Some improved scores here. Still struggling to complete first level in Dawn Rider though.

Dawn Rider: 1790
Warhawk: 361502  491670

 

Edited March 27 by jk40001

[MichaG]

Dawn Rider: 1555

[RedThunder]

Hi Guys.  Be out of it for a while, just not getting time to have game.

 

Still alright to play along again ? Even though I'm late to the party ?

 

 

 

[+therealbountybob]

18 minutes ago, RedThunder said:

Hi Guys.  Be out of it for a while, just not getting time to have game.

 

Still alright to play along again ? Even though I'm late to the party ?

 

 

 

 

Join right back in RT

You can post some late scores or we will have some sort of catch-up round soon

 

 

On 3/25/2023 at 3:54 PM, jk40001 said:

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I posted a score here.. My actual hardware is still in the box. So for now some score from the emulator at least.

 

Dawn Raider 1360
Warhawk 259141

 

  Welcome back jk40001

 

 

[+therealbountybob]

On 3/26/2023 at 2:25 PM, rdrunner said:

Dawn Raider is definitely a flawed game, but I've played worse.  I will say that I never expected to see another game where bullets randomly just fail to destroy targets like in The Tail of Beta Lyrae.  It's a bit less tolerable here since Dawn Raider has limited ammo.

 

Warhawk has been fun though (minus the hand cramps of course).

Beta says it's deliberate to add to the difficulty. Dawn Raider it's usually positioning - being in the centre vertically and the bombs not too late

 

[+therealbountybob]

On 3/26/2023 at 2:03 AM, carlsson said:

I understand why TRBB enjoys Dawn Raider. It reminds me a lot of his own games - very tough and small margins. Personally I spent over an hour last evening, and wasn't even close to my first score I posted before. I must've had beginner's luck even if the score isn't that high.

Yes and Yes carlsson - this would be the sort of game I'd like to write! Concentrate on bombing from a distance where you will not be hit by the rockets, wait for them to pass not always shooting them in front of you! The doors you need to be ready and go for it but usually on the 2nd opening of the big one.

[+therealbountybob]

On 3/26/2023 at 5:01 PM, graywest said:

Warhawk (with autofire): 209,013

 

Are we still doing an autofire bonus table? I used a Sega joystick with variable autofire for this one. It feels like cheating, but at least my hand is not cramping.  

 

I'm really enjoying Dawn Raider actually, but I'm in the same boat as @carlsson: despite many plays, I'm unable to beat my first score. I've resolved to get past the first level before we finish this round, though!

Autofire separate table not sure if we have many takers

 

[+therealbountybob]

On 3/25/2023 at 9:04 AM, Marius said:

...

In Dawn Raider the fact that the game gives instruction after losing a life to find a safe spot suggests to me that the coder simply had no room left in the code (or lacked the skill?) Or perhaps had another reason to do this, but it is not a very pretty solution either (to my taste). It's like you have to do something that the game should take care of. And I feel the same about the controls in this game. When mastering the controls in a game is something you like, then I totally agree that this could be a fun game. But for me it is like I am focusing not on the game at all, but all I do is preventing to make a mistake and preventing myself for getting some frustration from the controls.
...

It's an interesting programming challenge - I think the author's solution to where to restart to in a scrolling game is a nice one - especially as you have a window of movement. Having programmed Ramp Rage, Space Fortress Omega and Ski-It all with similar windows of movement I had to tackle this too: I use some player position adjustment code to find a "safeish" space but added other features such as short period of invincibilty and in SFO I had several restart points on each sector. I didn't want to just restart after each lost life.

 

All good fun