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Official Zaku Lynx Development Topic


TailChao

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ZakuLogo.gif

 

PengBrosStance.gifA Bit of Background:

 

In June of 2003, I wrote my first line of 6502 assembly code. Many years later, this code has evolved into the game you are viewing in your browser.

This topic will contain information on what's currently going on with Zaku's development as well as some interesting facts about how things function in the game and how I created it, etc. I'll edit this first post as new information arrives, as well as for general cleanliness, so keep watch. If anyone just starting out with Lynx development has a programming question, feel free to ask. I wouldn't have been able to create anything without help from others like Sage, Karri, and Carl, and I want to give the same support to others that I got when I started back in 2003.

Zaku was picked up for production by Super Fighter Team in mid-2006, and will be released on an authentic, Lynx-style, cartridge upon completion.

 

In case anyone is curious, here's the equipment that's been used to develop Zaku up to this date:

Hardware:

*Pentium III Desktop PC (866Mhz Coppermine, 256MB RAM), Windows 98SE, Two 20GB HDDs

*Thinkpad 390X (850Mhz PIII, 512MB RAM), Windows 2000, 20GB HDD

*Amiga 2000 with Lynx Development Kit

*Karri's 16MB Lynx Flashcart with Comlynx Cable

*Lots of AA Batteries

Software:

*Microsoft Paint

*Notepad

*Epyx Handy Development Kit

*BLL Lynx Development Kit

*LynxBuild ROM Builder

 

PengBrosStance.gifWhere to get Screenshots:

Current Zaku screenshots can be found in the Zaku section of PenguiNet (top of post) or by clicking here to go directly to the screenshot section. Screenshots are also available at Super Fighter Team's official Zaku website, here.

 

PengBrosStance.gifVideo Footage:

There is currently no video footage of Zaku up right now.

 

PengBrosStance.gifHave I seen this before?:

Zaku has made a few appearances at conventions, if you attended:

-Jaguar Connexion (2005)

-Retrogaming Connexion (2007)

-Retrogaming Connexion (2008)

You may have seen Zaku already.

 

That's it for now! Enjoy, everyone!

Edited by TailChao
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I've been watching the progress of this one for a while now. I even put a screenshot on my Lynx page. :D

 

Too bad about Handy though. I think you could get more people to buy the final game if you released a demo of some sort. Maybe just a non-playable attract mode like you see in arcade games.

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Wow. :-o I'm speechless.

This is cool stuff!

 

Keep it up TailChao!! :)

Thanks a bunch guys! I'm especially amazed to hear it from you, Karri. Keep up the good work on the multicart!

 

I've been watching the progress of this one for a while now. I even put a screenshot on my Lynx page. :D

 

Too bad about Handy though. I think you could get more people to buy the final game if you released a demo of some sort. Maybe just a non-playable attract mode like you see in arcade games.

Hey, thanks for the mention! Don't think that I'm not going to release another demo though ;) . It will only have one or two playable acts (like in the previous one). I'm holding off on releasing anything until I get my sound engine up and working and my brother finishes composing the soundtrack, so it will be a more finalized view of the game rather than the clumsy demo I put up last year.

Handy's issues are very strange. It gets angry with alot of the HBLANK palette changes I've done in Marine Zone and occasionally cuts off the bottom two pixels of the screen. It also has some lag unpresent on the real hardware (I have no idea how that happened.)

 

Oh, and on a side note, the new video above was incorrectly dated as 2006-01-28. The filenames have been corrected to 2007-01-28 (I shouldn't be doing this anymore, it's almost February :roll: )

Edited by TailChao
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That is most excellent dude. Glad to see the lynx homebrew scene is up and going again. I cant wait for the full release. I cant believe you use paint to draw the graphics. They look wonderful.

 

Well done again. We all appreciate your hard work.

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Nice, very impressive for a homebrew, great work! :cool: :thumbsup:

 

 

Finally a proper shooter for the Lynx. I cant wait. The Lynx is such a great machine for shooters - many sprites ;-)

BTW Tailchao, what do you think of the available Lynx shooters?

IMHO I consider Zarlor the best, technically impressive, but the gameplay is a bit flawed (balance, controls)

Gates of Zendocon is a bit too simple.

Raiden was too slow and the gameplay is quite messed up in this one. It has only 4 levels too and there are many parts missing.

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That is most excellent dude. Glad to see the lynx homebrew scene is up and going again. I cant wait for the full release. I cant believe you use paint to draw the graphics. They look wonderful.

 

Well done again. We all appreciate your hard work.

I use paint for all my pixel art too, it's a simple program but you can do wonders with it if you try. :D

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Holy cow...

 

this is looking great!

Nice, very impressive for a homebrew, great work! :cool: :thumbsup:

As always, thanks a bunch!

 

That is most excellent dude. Glad to see the lynx homebrew scene is up and going again. I cant wait for the full release. I cant believe you use paint to draw the graphics. They look wonderful.

 

Well done again. We all appreciate your hard work.

I use paint for all my pixel art too, it's a simple program but you can do wonders with it if you try. :D

MS Paint is a powerful tool. Since you work in a limited environment and have to do effects like dithering and shading by hand there's alot of different stylistic things each person will do to get the best results. I like working with cels for the same reason, having to do as much work manually as possible makes it look the best.

 

Finally a proper shooter for the Lynx. I cant wait. The Lynx is such a great machine for shooters - many sprites ;-)

BTW Tailchao, what do you think of the available Lynx shooters?

IMHO I consider Zarlor the best, technically impressive, but the gameplay is a bit flawed (balance, controls)

Gates of Zendocon is a bit too simple.

Raiden was too slow and the gameplay is quite messed up in this one. It has only 4 levels too and there are many parts missing.

Zarlor Mercenary looked nice when it wasn't moving, but I feel that the enemy design and level path were kind of cookie-cutter. Simply getting swamped by hordes of the same enemy the breaking for a short point grab then enduring more enemy swarms didn't feel all that ideal to me. And of course, my obligatory response that the framerate was too low. Probably the best of the bunch.

Gates of Zendocon was a mess. Simply holding the fire button for extremely large amount of time while enemies lazily flew into it wasn't all that fun for me. The whole game felt really clunky, almost unfinished. Everything moved so jerkily that I thought I was playing a Microsoft PowerPoint full of scaling for absolutely no reason other than to advertise that the Lynx can do the effect.

I really wanted to like Raiden. The shadow effects were particularly neat. But the game felt shallow and lacked the stylistic appeal of the arcade original. Being devoid of any in-game music didn't help much either. Plus, I have no idea what happened to the explosion animation...

 

So pretty much Zarlor Mercenary was the only really interesting title for me, but it's not something I would play regularly. Quite ironic that I program for the Lynx and really have little attachment to its titles outside of Chip's Challenge. Although, personally the sheer quality design of Chip's really makes up everything for me ;) . I hope that doesn't seem to overly negative, but I should be honest. about it anyway. Hell, it's only an opinion :roll: .

Edited by TailChao
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Holy cow...

 

this is looking great!

Nice, very impressive for a homebrew, great work! :cool: :thumbsup:

As always, thanks a bunch!

 

That is most excellent dude. Glad to see the lynx homebrew scene is up and going again. I cant wait for the full release. I cant believe you use paint to draw the graphics. They look wonderful.

 

Well done again. We all appreciate your hard work.

I use paint for all my pixel art too, it's a simple program but you can do wonders with it if you try. :D

MS Paint is a powerful tool. Since you work in a limited environment and have to do effects like dithering and shading by hand there's alot of different stylistic things each person will do to get the best results. I like working with cels for the same reason, having to do as much work manually as possible makes it look the best.

 

Finally a proper shooter for the Lynx. I cant wait. The Lynx is such a great machine for shooters - many sprites ;-)

BTW Tailchao, what do you think of the available Lynx shooters?

IMHO I consider Zarlor the best, technically impressive, but the gameplay is a bit flawed (balance, controls)

Gates of Zendocon is a bit too simple.

Raiden was too slow and the gameplay is quite messed up in this one. It has only 4 levels too and there are many parts missing.

Zarlor Mercenary looked nice when it wasn't moving, but I feel that the enemy design and level path were kind of cookie-cutter. Simply getting swamped by hordes of the same enemy the breaking for a short point grab then enduring more enemy swarms didn't feel all that ideal to me. And of course, my obligatory response that the framerate was too low. Probably the best of the bunch.

Gates of Zendocon was a mess. Simply holding the fire button for extremely large amount of time while enemies lazily flew into it wasn't all that fun for me. The whole game felt really clunky, almost unfinished. Everything moved so jerkily that I thought I was playing a Microsoft PowerPoint full of scaling for absolutely no reason other than to advertise that the Lynx can do the effect.

I really wanted to like Raiden. The shadow effects were particularly neat. But the game felt shallow and lacked the stylistic appeal of the arcade original. Being devoid of any in-game music didn't help much either. Plus, I have no idea what happened to the explosion animation...

 

So pretty much Zarlor Mercenary was the only really interesting title for me, but it's not something I would play regularly. Quite ironic that I program for the Lynx and really have little attachment to its titles outside of Chip's Challenge. Although, personally the sheer quality design of Chip's really makes up everything for me ;) . I hope that doesn't seem to overly negative, but I should be honest. about it anyway. Hell, it's only an opinion :roll: .

 

 

Too bad the Lynx got no AAA shooter. Gradius, R-Type, Parodius :lust:

I wonder if these games are difficult to port?

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I use paint for all my pixel art too, it's a simple program but you can do wonders with it if you try. :D

MS Paint is a powerful tool. Since you work in a limited environment and have to do effects like dithering and shading by hand there's alot of different stylistic things each person will do to get the best results. I like working with cels for the same reason, having to do as much work manually as possible makes it look the best.

Yep, thats why I use it for all my Pixel work, especially for a fighting game I was making sprites for (never got anywhere with it cause I can't program for the life of me lol) I only use PaintShopPro for stuff needing alot of detail.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Tail Chao, I played the latest version of your game at the Retro-gaming Connexion 2007 event in france, Zaku is just... brilliant :)

 

People were impressed with these upcoming release and enjoyed the demo.

 

Keep the good work !!!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I spent a large amount of work getting ready for RGC, I'm glad it paid off. Development is going much faster, even though I am now attending college.

 

I was waiting until after RGC to update this topic (to break the production news), so I hope the wait wan't too long. The first post has been updated with the proper links and news, more to come soon.

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Tail Chao, I played the latest version of your game at the Retro-gaming Connexion 2007 event in france, Zaku is just... brilliant :)

 

People were impressed with these upcoming release and enjoyed the demo.

 

Keep the good work !!!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I spent a large amount of work getting ready for RGC, I'm glad it paid off. Development is going much faster, even though I am now attending college.

 

I was waiting until after RGC to update this topic (to break the production news), so I hope the wait wan't too long. The first post has been updated with the proper links and news, more to come soon.

 

Again, thank you for your hard work.

 

I heard only positive comments.

 

At one time I was playing and another guy was discovering the game looking at me, and said "hey, it's better than all the shooters we have on GP32 and GP2X !"

 

:D

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