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Battlesphere. Tell me why it's "so great", or what I "should be doing".

Austin

By Austin
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Austin Quadrunner

Austin

Posted
Posted

Title says it all.

 

Tell me why it's "so great". Likewise, tell me "what I should be doing".

 

A very generous friend loaned me one of his original Battlesphere dupes (he bought multiple copies of the first run, not BS Gold). I loaded it up for the first time last night, and I was pretty much lost. Yeah, in the varying modes I figured out how to blow a few things up (especially once I switched the controls back to the three-button mode, apparently he had it set for Pro Controller settings prior to me receiving it), but the action seemed.. sparse at best, even on higher difficulty modes.

 

Trust me, I'd really, really like to know how this game works inside and out. It seems like a really well-made game. However, it doesn't seem all that entertaining from first-impressions. Tell me what I'm doing wrong.

 

(I should note that I've never been a huge fan of 360^ space combat games. The only one I really, really liked was Shadow Squadron on the 32X, and Darklight Conflict on the Saturn seemed pretty cool as well).

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NeoGeoNinja Dragonstomper

NeoGeoNinja

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I actually really like these sorts of games (particularly Colony Wars series and Stellar Assault SS on Saturn *sequel to Shadow Squadron I believe*) so would love to give Battlesphere a crack. However, at that price vs the £5 it costs for any copy of Colony Wars or Darklight Conflict on PS1, it's really NEVER going to happen!

 

Good luck with the enlightenment dude. I look forward to hearing your non-biased, objectivity regarding it once you've got it all figured out. I really need to hear it tbh...

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Austin Quadrunner

Austin

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Dude. You've (somehow?!) got nearly 9000 posts on AA, and you've only just got around to playing Battlesphere!

 

What's that all about, eh? :P

 

AHAHAHAHA....

 

To be honest, I was too broke when it was released, and then when I became re-interested in the Jaguar (2009), it was too-damned expensive!! :P

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PeterG Stargunner

PeterG

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If you don't like that type of game it really might not be something for you but truth is that it never was a game that is easy to get into directly, which is also a reason why it doesn't do well at Jagfests unless people know what they are doing. You might want to try Free for all until you get the hang of the controls then you could proceed to Gauntlet mode or Alone against the empire. In Gauntlet you defend your Bases against wave after wave of enemies.i had quite some fun with it and in the first 100 levels you encounter also some nice surprises.after that i found it a bit repetitive and it goes in ad infinitum. AatE Mode is the most fun.you can control other ships in a spacemap to attack enemy bases and ships,protect your own and warp to the different zones. And you can also dock your stations to refill. So just try it,maybe there is some fun for you in it.and of not,good that you just borrowed it:)

Edited by PeterG
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Isgoed Stargunner

Isgoed

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@ Austin, do you also have the manual with the game?

 

At the basics it's very important to know how the radar works, and how to lock-on enemies, when to use multiple shots etc.

It is a must for the player to be fully accustomized with the controls, so the player only has to focus on the gameplay/targets.

 

You'll be doing a lot of "catch and mouse" with the enemy ships like in Colony Wars, so in general it's easier to keep your speed low, only adjusting to get your enemy where you want it..

 

If there is one person on this board who I think is a Battlesphere expert, it might be Saturn.

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Saturn River Patroller

+Saturn

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Yeah, I love this game and have retired several Pro Controllers on it. But, all (great) space shooters are pretty much my favorites.

I would go w/ PeterG's and Isgoed's advice, though.

 

AAtE is definitely one of the best modes imo.

Here's a thread (Battlesphere Tactics) started by PeterG way back that I refer to often. It has the most comprehensive collection of gameplay tips/information on the planet. Hope this helps :)

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Saturn River Patroller

+Saturn

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Retired several Pro Controllers on it? :'( I'd like to get my hands on just one pro controller to baby and hoard for decades of use...

Yes, but (destroying) one controller was completely avoidable and totally my fault. When I realized I'd inadvertently removed the cheats from my BSG cart losing all my progress on Gauntlet, that badboy hit the wall hard lol. Pieces were everywhere.

Still counts as 'retired' though :P

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Zerosquare River Patroller

Zerosquare

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Battlesphere is (way) overhyped and overpriced.

 

I admit I don't like the guys who developed it, and that I'm not a fan of this kind of games anyways. But I did test it a bit, and saw people playing it, and didn't see what the whole fuss was about. I found the graphics, sound effects and music bland; and the 60 fps framerate is not that impressive when the only thing you see is a starfield. Honestly, although they're not the same kind of space shooter, I've been more impressed by Tempest 2000 and Zero 5 than Battlesphere.

 

Go ahead, flame away :P

Edited by Zerosquare
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JagChris Quadrunner

JagChris

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We need someone like Saturn or Willard to describe how the enemy AI is unique when you get involved in the game. This is something that seems hard to appreciate watching videos or maybe nobody has ever took the time to capture that aspect on video.

 

Dr Clus videos seem awesome but they're too damn dark to enjoy. Maybe he can repost them sometime.

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CyranoJ Quadrunner

+CyranoJ

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"Stay in the distance and be as small as possible for as long as possible" ?

 

We need someone like Saturn or Willard to describe how the enemy AI is unique when you get involved in the game. This is something that seems hard to appreciate watching videos or maybe nobody has ever took the time to capture that aspect on video.

 

Dr Clus videos seem awesome but they're too damn dark to enjoy. Maybe he can repost them sometime.

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PeterG Stargunner

PeterG

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You have two locks.one that targets the nearest and one that circles through all enemys.try the keypad.there will be a little white sign in the radar indicating the locker enemy.

A procontroller is really nice for this game making the controls more comfortable for changing speed/direction, weapons and locking unto enemies.

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Willard Stargunner

Willard

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As peter said i think that it's best to start with one of the two more intuitive modes like gauntlet or free for all to get a handle on the game. The go into alone against the empire - which is the real game. What really bothers me is that AATE seems to be way underdeveloped, what's there is great but I think that a little more customization could've been added.

 

The majority of gauntlet and free for all is spin and shoot, with a little bit of slow-down-now-and-then or avoid-fire-now-and-then to replenish your weapon energy or life energy respectively. Across all modes I generally use the destroyer which seems to be the best ship - another complaint i have about the game is how imo that ship is clearly the best, and the other ships don't really offer better or unique enough aspects to compel you to choose them.

 

I wouldn't exactly say that Battlesphere is a killer app. the gameplay is pretty refined, but not overly ambitious so it doesn't suffer from any quirks or bad design choices like some other games that go for a cheap cash in or do a poor job trying to reinvent the genre. There are a small handful of additions I would've like to have seen, but for what it is I think battlesphere is an above average game that imo is among the ~80% of jaguar games that tap into the system.

 

I think that's part of the reason it's so sought after on the jaguar, because you're getting a reasonably good game that has graphics of the quality you'd expect on the jaguar. If you want 16-bit games there are other great systems for that, I think even today some people buy the jaguar meaning to get games that live up to the expectation of a graphical step above those (which was presumably Atari's intention), and sadly there aren't as many as there should've been. I feel that adds a little to the game, and no doubt it wouldn't have been as highly regarded on a platform like the playstation. I always felt Battlesphere was just a touch above what qualifies as "good", and the people who hate it are being too critical, and the people who drone about how great it is are giving it too much credit :P

Edited by Willard
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racerx Stargunner

racerx

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The ST Star Raiders port is a much better game than BS(G). And that game isn't a great Star Raiders really...

 

Madness...Battlesphere is awesome. If the Jag had more games of its caliber, history could've turned out differently. Hell, Fire Pong and Defector in BS:G are perfectly reasonable minigames in their own right.

 

I've played with three machines networked; just wish I could track down a few more people with a copy.

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Punisher5.0 River Patroller

Punisher5.0

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Madness...Battlesphere is awesome. If the Jag had more games of its caliber, history could've turned out differently. Hell, Fire Pong and Defector in BS:G are perfectly reasonable minigames in their own right.

I've played with three machines networked; just wish I could track down a few more people with a copy.

If I ever get another copy I'd be down for a LAN party. I've always felt that BS would be a much funner game playing multiplayer.

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Lynxpro River Patroller

Lynxpro

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If I ever get another copy I'd be down for a LAN party. I've always felt that BS would be a much funner game playing multiplayer.

 

 

Tell the rights-holders to make up another batch of cartridges [or let Songbird do it]. They seem to think they'll punish the community - by restricting the supply - for piracy yet their actions actually fuel the demand for said piracy.

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doctorclu Quadrunner

doctorclu

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Someone mentioned they liked my Battlesphere videos on Youtube but found them dark... yeh sorry about that. I'll see if I can reshoot them sometime. Older recording methods. :)

 

I think Battlesphere is a fun game made by fun geeks. You know what I think was the biggest shame of Scatologic was that they stagnated. They made a really cool game, gave it great menus, packed in various games (Basically Star Raiders, Arena combat, and wave after wave in Gauntlet). Then they gave ways to load games. After a while I used Battlesphere mainly for loading amateur dev games like Tetris, Native, Surrounded all for the first time.

 

I've been lucky enough to play on a four player network and that was a blast. Have played on two and three player networks many times since.

 

The other fun aspect of the game are the races and ships look like a lot of ships from various other sci-fi shows. So if you want to go Battlestar Galactica you have the Vypers which kinda look like Colonial Vipers. You have ships that look like the Star Furys from Babylon 5, and so on.

 

Again, a game for geeks made by geeks. The biggest problem with Battlesphere is that not enough copies were made.

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